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George Ford described it as “another day at the office” and the great and the good of rugby smiled. Reaching a century of England caps is anything but routine, yet that ability to stay in the moment has long set him apart.
All around him people have been getting excited on his behalf, before Saturday’s first Test with Argentina. Elliot Daly set aside personal disappointment at his Lions tour being cut short to hail “one of the greatest England players, without a doubt. He epitomises what a team is about”.
Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ford’s teammate at Premiership semi-finalists Sale, paused from preparing for the Lions-Waratahs clash to admit that “if he doesn’t play for us we struggle to win”.
Ben Youngs, England’s most-capped player with 127 Test appearances, backed the fly-half to go on and exceed his record and then, inevitably, step into an international coaching role.
Stuart Lancaster, who gave Ford his debut 11 years ago, talked of a player “at the peak of his powers”. Owen Farrell spoke of his pride at seeing such a “selfless” individual reach the milestone.
“George’s consistency over such a long period of time is what sets him apart,” Farrell added. “He always brings out the best in everyone else in the team. I absolutely loved playing with him.”
Argentina v England teams
ShowArgentina: B Elizalde; R Isgro, L Cinti, J Piccardo, S Cordero; S Carreras, G Bertranou; M Vivas, J Montoya (capt), P Delgado, L Paulos, P Rubiolo, P Matera, JM Gonzalez, F Isa. Replacements: B Bernasconi, T Gallo, F Coria Marchetti, S Grondona, J Moro, S Benitez Cruz, N Roger, M Moroni.
England: F Steward; T Roebuck, H Slade, S Atkinson, W Muir; G Ford (co-capt), B Spencer; F Baxter, J George (co-capt), J Heyes, C Ewels, A Coles, B Curry, S Underhill; T Willis. Replacements: T Dan, B Rodd, A Opoku-Fordjour, C Cunningham-South, G Pepper, A Dombrandt, J van Poortvliet, C Murley.
In La Plata, an hour’s drive south of Buenos Aires, Ford was keeping a lid on his emotions. He is co-captain of a side blooding three new caps against a Pumas team which defeated the Lions last time out.
“It’s an unbelievably proud moment for me and, more importantly, my family,” he said. “But the most important thing is the team and getting a good result. Even though there is a milestone there, the whole bigger picture doesn’t change. It’s England-Argentina, we want to win and make sure we perform really well.
“In terms of my individual preparation for the game, I’ve not felt much different. There’s a bit more noise about, but it’s trying to do the right thing for the team.
“I’ve been fortunate to play a few times for England. I haven’t lost the desire or how honoured and privileged I feel to do it, but what experience tells you is that, even though it’s a milestone, it’s just the next England game in terms of trying to perform well; another day at the office, if that makes sense.”
When the Lions tour party was picked and Ford overlooked, Brian O’Driscoll declared him the best player in 40 years not to have played for the best of Britain and Ireland.
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Michael Cheika, who coached Argentina at the last World Cup, concurred. “He should have been on the Lions tour, no doubt,” he said. “I still don’t know how they didn’t pick him.”
Ford’s response was to quietly take it on the chin and reapply himself to his lifelong philosophy of making tomorrow better than today. “In rugby, in sport in general, you have loads of ups and downs,” he explained. “How you deal with the highs and lows is to try and be as consistent as possible.
“Don’t change just because of certain things going on in and around you, just be consistent to who you are, which for me means wanting to be as good a teammate as possible.”
England have never lost a series to Argentina. Steve Borthwick, the head coach, insists the Pumas are heavy favourites. Publicly at least. Behind the scenes players and management alike are determined to deliver for Ford as he has so often for them.
