Jamie George’s brutally honest assessment of lethargic England as ex-captain makes Italy vow
Ireland celebrating v England and Red Rose hooker Jamie George.
England centurion Jamie George has given an insight into their “horrible” Ireland review and why they are determined to make sure it is a one-off.
Steve Borthwick’s men go into the next round of the Six Nations Championship off the back of two poor defeats in the competition.
They succumbed to Scotland before being thrashed at home by Andy Farrell’s side at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.
Concerning displays
While one subpar performance can be excused, the nature of the reversal in the third round of the Six Nations hinted at deeper issues within the England set-up.
George believes that their start to the game was relatively promising, but after Ireland went ahead, he admitted that they were lethargic.
“The difficult thing in the Ireland game and what was really disappointing was that the energy levels were really low across the board so you do then reflect back and think, ‘why?’ As a leadership group, we probably have to look at that and understand why that might have been the case,” he told The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast.
“Obviously, I came into the game relatively early and I think what maybe happened was that we went out with a plan, we were very clear, very confident going into the game and we probably looked a bit shell-shocked when we didn’t get what we worked really hard for.
“We had some really good opportunities. We watched the game back, we looked really good actually in the first 15 minutes and weren’t able to then capitalise.
“A few errors gifted Ireland a little bit and then we’re on the back foot, we’re chasing the game and then, slightly out of character, our reaction to it seemed to sap energy out of the team which isn’t characteristic of us over the last 12 months.
“It’s a good lesson for us to be able to learn now and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
‘Horrible’ watching
The English team have now poured over the review, which made for “horrible” viewing, but George now hopes that those mistakes will not be repeated against Italy.
“It’s horrible but actually that’s the sort of negative reinforcement that you probably need to see in order to then learn what you need to learn and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.
“A good example of that, we were shown a clip of a ball going up in the air, and obviously, because of the GPS data, you can see what percentage of your max speed that you’re running at that moment in time.
“It was, ‘you’re running at 40 per cent, you’re running at 40 per cent’, and the expectation for us is to be flat out.
“When you compare that and when you’re watching it, it hurts. You take things personally, you’re almost embarrassed about putting that out there on the field and then you use that hurt as fuel to make sure you get it right on the training field, move forward and get ready to take on Italy away.”
