MARSEILLE (AFP) – George Ford’s imperious display with the boot, scoring all 27 points in England’s demolition of Argentina, also featured three high-quality drop-goals, a rarity for the World Cup and rugby in general.
Going into the Pool D opener against Los Pumas in Marseille, Ford had scored just two drop-goals in his previous 80 appearances for England, the last coming away in Santa Fe against Argentina in 2017, two years after his first in Dublin against Ireland in 2015.
That all changed in a dramatic 10 minutes in the first half of the 27-10 victory yesterday which puts England in control of a pool that also contains next-up opponents Japan, Samoa and Chile.
“Marcus (Smith), Faz (Owen Farrell) and myself do some drop-goals after every training session. It is such a crucial, critical weapon at times, and you’ve seen how influential it has been at World Cups,” Ford said. “We get the nines (scrum-halves) to pass us the ball and get other players to put pressure on us. We try to make it as realistic as possible.”
The training ground mock-ups certainly worked as Ford gracefully slotted his three drops, including one from the halfway line, between the 27th and 37th minute to firmly take the game away from a misfiring, ill-disciplined Argentina.
The English fly-half, starting at 10 in the suspension-enforced absence of team skipper Farrell, joins an elite band of players to have scored three drop-goals in a World Cup match.
The last player to achieve the feat was Theuns Kotze for Namibia against Fiji in 2011, while Juan Martin Hernandez hit three for Argentina against Ireland four years earlier.
Jonny Wilkinson, who holds the overall World Cup record of 14, claimed a hat-trick for England in a memorable semi-final victory over France in 2003 and Jannie De Beer struck a record five for South Africa against England in 1999.
“That’s incredible,” Ford said of De Beer’s five drop-goals. “I thought I was on track at one point!
“But the crucial one was probably the third one, which took us more than seven points ahead. That was critical in a game where the ball was greasy and it was going to be hard to move the ball and score tries.
“The thing with drop-goals is the best time to take one is when the opposition least expect it. So you try to disguise it a bit, to give yourself more time and space.
“But the whole plan wasn’t about drop-goals, it was just about imposing pressure and coming away with points.”
Scrum-halves Alex Mitchell and Danny Care, Ford added, “both kicked brilliantly and we were so disciplined defensively, which gave us an opportunity to score the points”.
Ford, who also kicked six penalties in the win, joked that it was actually Care, with three to his name, who went into the game with the most drop-goals of the match-day squad. “We were laughing because out of this squad, Danny Care is the one who has the most drop-goals for England, so I thought ‘That’s not right, I need to put an end to that!’.”
England coach Steve Borthwick hailed Ford’s clarity under pressure.
“His ability to think clearly in the highest-pressure circumstances is exemplary,” Borthwick said.
“You can tell with those players they seem to have more time. When he was kicking those drop-goals, it felt like he had more time… and that is a sign of a real top-quality player.”
England full-back Freddie Steward added, “He makes everyone else look great and that’s the telling side of a player like George. He’s a dream to play with.
“It’s so nice when you stand behind him and he’s slotting drop-goals for fun, it makes everyone else’s life a lot easier. He’s such a tactician.”
England lost flanker Tom Curry in the third minute to a yellow card that was upgraded to red for a head-on-head tackle with Argentine full-back Juan Cruz Mallia, seeing out the rest of the game with 14 men.
“It’s very easy when you lose a man to hit the panic button and everyone’s like ‘Argh’ and heads are in the air but Fordy was ice cool about it and when you have one person doing it, it radiates around the team,” Steward said.
