Bath"s George Ford is big enough to thrive in rugby"s land of giants

“Look at people like Leigh Halfpenny and Shane Williams. They went from being

very quick, very lithe and relatively light to having to bulk up. Look at

the amount of injury that Leigh in particular has suffered.”

Which brings me to George Ford, the young Bath fly-half and the latest small

man trying to make it in a big world. I interviewed him last week, and I’ll

freely admit that writing the subsequent interview was not easy.

Ford is a delightfully affable young man and a very fine attacking rugby

player. At club level he has been defending decently enough.

However, there are worries about that side of his game, especially at the

higher level, and I am among the worriers, a state of mind that has been

backed up in private by a number of top-level coaches.

To highlight a potential weakness rather than merely emphasise all the

positives does not always sit favourably with a player’s supporters, so I

took some flak. That is fair enough.

There should be considerable sympathy for Ford. Had he played in a previous

era, he might already be a superstar. His vision, game management, kicking

from hand, running threat and ability to put others into space are all

excellent. All that would have been more than enough in days gone by.

Defensive duties for flyhalves used to be purely optional then. As the great

Barry John admitted: “I didn’t do much tackling myself.”

John’s theory was that he should not risk injury saving a try at one end when

he was likely either to score or create many more at the other end.

However, it was the likes of Rob Andrew who changed all that. And once Jonny

Wilkinson took up the defensive baton, that was it.

That has been the benchmark ever since, and to watch Owen Farrell for Saracens

in the Heineken Cup semi-final last Saturday was to witness a young man

reaching that level. Farrell was utterly ferocious in his tackling.

Given that Farrell’s attacking play has improved this season it is little

surprise that he is so far ahead of the chasing pack as England’s fly-half

now. However, even the Saracens man has his critics, because the truth is

that a lot of misty-eyed romanticism still lingers when assessing flyhalves.

It is a question of balance. Stuart Lancaster, the England head coach,

probably had the answer earlier this season when asked whether a player’s

defence or attack held greater sway in selection.

“I wouldn’t pick a player who couldn’t defend, but I would probably look more

to the attacking player,” Lancaster said. “You cannot go into an

international with one of your players who cannot be trusted as a defender.”

So if Ford starts for England against New Zealand in June (when Farrell might

be unavailable), he will be trusted, and that will be good enough, even for

me.

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Bath"s George Ford is big enough to thrive in rugby"s land of giants