Jamie George vows demolition by France must 'NEVER happen again'

‘It can NEVER happen again’: England hooker Jamie George reveals players have been warned there can be NO repeat of last week’s demolition by France by ‘direct’ head coach Steve Borthwick… as side target ‘reaction’ against Six Nations favourites Ireland

  • England suffered their worst ever defeat at Twickenham losing 10-53 to France 
  • Jamie George has said the team is seeking a reaction against Ireland on Saturday
  • Eddie Jones believes the RFU may have influenced Steve Borthwick’s selections

England have vowed that last week’s capitulation must ‘never happen again’ as they prepare for Saturday’s daunting assignment against Ireland.

Steve Borthwick’s side suffered their worst ever home defeat in a 53-point mauling by France seven days ago and now they face the world’s No 1 side.

England arrived in Dublin with wounded pride and hooker Jamie George said: ‘We’re a team that prides ourselves on physicality and that’s probably why it hurt as much as it did. We just didn’t give a good account of ourselves, we really didn’t. We’re very clear about why and we’re also very clear that it can never happen again 

‘Steve’s let us know that we certainly let ourselves down. He’s direct. He’s to the point. It’s intimidating because he’s a person everyone in the room has a huge amount of respect for. We’re obviously looking for a reaction off the back of a very poor performance.’ 

Borthwick has moved Owen Farrell back into the No 10 jersey, taking over from Marcus Smith. Former coach Eddie Jones on Friday weighed in, saying the RFU may have influenced the coach’s selections.

England suffered their worst ever defeat at Twickenham losing 10-53 to France last weekend

Hooker Jamie George has said the team is seeking a reaction against Ireland on Saturday

Former coach Eddie Jones believes the RFU may have influenced Steve Borthwick’s selections

‘The selection of Marcus – to me that’s always the political selection,’ Jones said on his podcast. ‘A player has been out of form, hasn’t quite done well at Test level and then he plays one or two club games and he’s a hero. The media starts banging on the door – you’ve got to pick him, you’ve got to pick him – and then the board reacts to that, and ask, “Why aren’t you picking him?” 

‘When you’re a young coach at the start of your career you can get influenced by that. I really felt for Marcus in that game. The thing you’ve got in England is the intenseness of the media, which then affects the board, and they start to step in, and that’s when you get problems. Allow the coach to coach.

‘The board have a strategic role, but because they feel the pressure they try to get involved in the operational side, and that’s when things get worse. Unless you have strong people around the team that can be a difficulty.’

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