George Ford: England won’t pull punches when investigating Six Nations downfall
Ireland stormed to a record 42-21 victory at Allianz Stadium a week after the Calcutta Cup was seized by Scotland.
George Ford insisted England would not pull any punches when they investigated why their Guinness Six Nations title hunt was over after just three rounds.
Ireland stormed to a record 42-21 victory at Allianz Stadium a week after the Calcutta Cup was seized by Scotland in another crushing defeat against opponents positioned lower in the world rankings.
A staggering 24 turnovers was the headline statistic underscoring England’s across-the-board malfunction on Saturday and Ford admitted they must get to the bottom of what happened before the final phase of the tournament against Italy and France.
“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,” the Sale fly-half said.
“We’re going to be part of some uncomfortable meetings and some uncomfortable reviews, which will be a positive in the end because we actually want to address things and get to the root of some of the problems and come up with some solutions.
“So when you have a couple of results like this, we will take it head on and make sure that we actually get to some proper solutions that we can grow from.”
Few players emerged from the wreckage at Twickenham with their reputations intact and Ford was not among them after two penalties failed to find touch early in the match when England were still in contention.
Within half-an-hour, Ireland were 22-0 ahead and the rudderless hosts looked broken, making crucial errors. Ford then drew sarcastic cheers from fans when he did eventually boot the ball into the stands.
“There were a couple to touch, the first one I tried to be aggressive and go for it and I got that one wrong,” Ford said.
“I actually thought for the second one that I punched it into the five-metre line and obviously they thought it went the other side of the flag.
“Look, it happens. It’s not good, it’s not acceptable to do that, but stuff like that happens in sport, in games and it’s not for a lack of intent or endeavour.”
On successive weekends England have been blown away in the first half, placing an urgency on finding out why they are starting so slowly.
“We’ve got to get to the bottom of it. It’s clearly not good enough. In the first 15-20 minutes in a Test match you want to at least give yourselves a foothold in the game,” Ford said.
“Usually the emotions settle down after that period of time, but when we have conceded it has been seven, 14, 17 and then 22. It’s too much for us to get back.
“It’s obviously not good enough – the last two results and performances – and 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. Hopefully propel ourselves on again.”
