England will stick with emerging five-eighth George Ford for this weekend’s clash with Australia, adding an element of the unknown to the Wallabies’ preparations.
Ford, 21, impressed on his starting debut in a 28-9 win over Samoa and England coach Stuart Lancaster confirmed he would stay in the No.10 jersey at Twickenham ahead of Owen Farrell.
Wallabies five-eighth Bernard Foley admits he knows little about Ford and plans to dig up footage of him playing for Bath as part of his pre-match analysis.
“I don’t know too much about him. We were probably thinking a couple of weeks ago that Owen Farrell would be starting,” Foley said on Monday.
“I suppose it’s a bit of unfamiliarity there for them and a bit of the unexpected.
“I’ll scrounge through the tapes and try and find footage of him wherever I can.”
Ford threatened the line, kicked smartly and withstood some ferocious defence against Samoa and his rise is creating excitement among England fans ahead of next year’s World Cup.
“At the time I felt it was a good performance and a good first start for England, and after looking at it again it definitely was,” Lancaster said on Monday.
“George has earned the right to start again. He’s played well enough for that.”
Lancaster suggested the experiment of moving Farrell to inside centre may be abandoned after just one match, with the coach giving serious consideration to recalling Billy Twelvetrees.
Gloucester centre Twelvetrees impressed off the bench against Samoa and is locked in a two-way duel with Farrell to face the Wallabies.
Like the Wallabies, England have endured a rocky November campaign and are looking to end 2014 on a high.
The match carries added significance ahead of the teams meeting in the group stage at the World Cup but Foley cheekily suggested a win would mean more mentally to England.
“I think the English always do, when they beat us, think there’s a big thing there,” Foley said.
“Next year is going to be totally different sort of beast (for us).
“There’s a lot of players to come back in, there’s another eight months of other players developing, as well as the team getting used to how it wants to play.”
Birdy
Guest
Yeah; FO, he's got a lot of talent. One of those players that it always has seemed inevitable he will be the country's fly-half at some point. Whether he's ready now (or even for the WC) is another matter. Lancaster is getting a bit of stick here for not giving him more opportunities earlier, although in fairness I think he'd earmarked the tour of NZ as his breakthrough but he missed it through injury. He's got all the skills; a good turn of pace and very good kicker out of hand. Question marks are against his place-kicking and defence, and these perceived 'weaknesses' had swung it in Farrell's favour up until now. England have got to get the backline moving for the WC, though, so worth the risk now. Believe it or not there's genuine pace and cutting edge in England's wingers at the moment (with a kid called Wade coming through who could be a star), but the midfield is killing the opportunities. Much talk of a possible Sam Burgess-Tuilagi midfield for the WC but lots of things would need to fall into place for that to happen. I'm a bit fearful of the Aussie backline. I thought they looked the most threatening I've seen them in years against Ireland. The pack? Who knows. They'll benefit from not having to face Corbisiero, Cole and Launchbury, but replacements are good. By the way there's an excellent interview in the Daily Telegraph (England) with Henry Speight. Amazed the Aussie press haven't picked it up given they seem to spend their lives trawling the pom media. Suppose it can't be spun as an 'England bigging themselves up' or 'disrespecting the Wallabies' article so isn't of interest - sorry couldn't resist.
formeropenside
Guest
Ford looked pretty good when I saw him play the Tiggers at the Rec back in October. The Salts backs were going straight though them like a pack of the proverbial. Of course, it didn't help that the Bath scrum was putting Leicester in a world of hurt. Strangely, the lineout didn't work that day for Bath terribly well - they should have used one of the pre-match skydivers to take a few throws.
Birdy
Guest
I'm not sure England do think that a win against the Wallabies is a 'really big thing' all the time. ABs and Boks - yes. Wallabies? Not so much. Wallabies players don't seem to be able to help themselves in terms of bigging themselves up.
scrumpoacher
Guest
'Wary' is a bit overused-your wary of a snake or a swollen river...