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George Ford has vowed that England will conduct a “properly honest” and “uncomfortable” review of their Six Nations humiliation against Ireland on Saturday.
The hosts collapsed spectacularly in the face of an Irish onslaught at Twickenham, falling 22-0 behind after half an hour, with Ford’s surprising inaccuracy at fly-half exemplifying an error-strewn team display. The Sale No 10 missed two kicks for touch which proved terminal to England’s hopes of applying pressure in the decisive early stages.
After achieving a 12th successive win, in their tournament opener against Wales, England capitulated in rounds two and three as they were overwhelmed by Scotland at Murrayfield and then beaten even more comprehensively by Andy Farrell’s Ireland in a match they had to win to keep their championship hopes alive.
Instead of continuing to build momentum for the World Cup in Australia next year, there are now urgent questions concerning England’s mentality, tactics and selection under the head coach, Steve Borthwick. The pressure will be intense when they travel to Rome to face Italy after a two-week break.
Asked how England will process a second damaging defeat, Ford said: “You’ve got two options: you either beat around the bush a little bit and avoid things or you get to be properly honest and pick it to pieces.
“We’re going to be part of some uncomfortable meetings and reviews, which will be a positive in the end, because we want to address things and get to the root of the problems and come up with solutions. When you have a couple of results like this, it’s to front it up, take it head-on and make sure we actually get to some proper solutions where we can grow from it.”
Farrell spoke of his players “getting out of their own way” in a magnificent team performance and Ford insisted England want to play with similar freedom.
“Honestly we’re not constricted,” he said. “The messaging in the week is to play big, to attack, to go at the opposition. It’s to be smart as well … I think the big thing we’ll take forward this week is we want the intent, energy and endeavour to go and attack a game, at the start of a game. But if we don’t marry that up with accuracy it’s going to be a whole load of energy and not a lot of outcome.”
Ford said he had erred with his kicking but questioned if the officials had got both decisions right. “The first one I tried to be aggressive and go for it and I got that one wrong. I actually thought the second one I punched it into the five [metre line] and obviously they thought it went the other side of the flag. It happens. It’s not good, it’s not acceptable to do that, but stuff like that happens in sport. It’s not for a lack of intent.”
Ford also called on supporters to maintain perspective after the positive atmosphere around England’s prospects seemingly evaporated in the space of eight days.
“I don’t think we were the best team in the world when we went 12 wins on the bounce, I don’t think we’re the worst team now,” Ford said. “So just to be a bit more balanced about it. It’s obviously not good enough, the last two results and performances, we’re going to front that up. What we’re going to do going forward isn’t going to be due to a lack of endeavour to get better and fix it, and hopefully propel ourselves on again.”
