MX23RW : Friday, April 26 01:26:40| >> :600:3129623:3129623:

George Ford: 'Scotland draw two years ago was pivotal'

The Leicester fly-half scored a late try after the home side had earlier squandered a big lead.

George Ford recalls England's riotous draw with Scotland two years ago as a pivotal moment in the team's discovery of how to cope with pressure.

Ford stepped off the bench to cross almost three minutes into injury time to deny the Scots a first win at Twickenham since 1983, but the dramatic climax was just part of the story.

England had built a seemingly unassailable lead by storming 31-0 ahead, only for a breathtaking fightback orchestrated by Finn Russell to seize a 38-31 lead for the underdogs.

George Ford says England are now calmer when the pressure is on
George Ford says England are now calmer when the pressure is on (Adam Davy/PA)

It was the latest example of the side's growing capacity to squander winning positions and Eddie Jones blamed the habit on the psychological wounds of the 2015 World Cup, adding: "It's like we have some hand grenades in the back of a jeep and sometimes they go off when there's a lot of pressure."

With the rivals locking horns once more in Saturday's Guinness Six Nations clash at Twickenham, Ford insists England have learned to stay composed.

"In terms of being under the most intense heat, to go through an experience like that was great for us really," the Leicester fly-half said.

"We've noticed we're a lot calmer in those situations. The crucial thing when you come to a situation like that is to understand what you need to do. The execution of it comes after.

"We're calmer and not so desperate to try to snatch to win the game. We understand the process and that our best chance of eventually scoring is to do all the basics and build some pressure.

"Hopefully that's good enough to get a try or penalty or whatever it may be. There's room for improvement there, but it has felt a lot calmer.

"My try was the last play of the game and we had to do a lot of things in that last passage of play knowing that one mistake and the game would have been over.

"From that point of view, having the ability to be accurate and execute under the most intense pressure was a real positive.

"We saw that again in the Autumn Nations Cup final against France, so that is not a bad thing to add to our game in case situations like that do occur."

ID:433039: cacheID:433039:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:restore:12005:
Restore Data
Share this article now:
Billy Vunipola pictured in October 2019
Read Next:
Billy Vunipola: 'England are hunting down Scotland for Lions places'
>
rhs 2.0
Today's games header
10am
Bublik
Carballes Baena
10am
Marozsan
Cerundolo
10am
Musetti
Seyboth Wild
10am
Paul
Klein
10am
Rublev
Bagnis
10am
Andreeva
Noskova
10am
Bronzetti
Rybakina
10am
Garcia
Wang
10am
Pavlyuchenkova
Saville
11.30am
Altmaier
Fils
11.30am
Martin Etcheverry
Shapovalov
11.30am
Alexandrova
Krueger
11.30am
Bucsa
Kasatkina
11.30am
Dolehide
Kalinina
11.30am
Jimenez Kasintseva
Paolini
11.30am
Linette
Sabalenka
1pm
Baez
Van Assche
1pm
Hurkacz
Draper
1pm
Bejlek
Kalinskaya
1pm
Cristian
Krejcikova
1pm
Kostyuk
Sherif
2pm
Zheng
Putintseva
2.30pm
Humbert
Van De Zandschulp
2.30pm
Darderi
Fritz
2.30pm
Boulter
Montgomery
3pm
Shevchenko
Alcaraz
3.30pm
Vondrousova
Rogers
4pm
Griekspoor
Daniel
4pm
Munar
Struff
5pm
Navone
Rune
7pm
Coric
Zverev
8.30pm
Collins
Danilovic
11.30am
Shang
Davidovich Fokina


Sports Mole provides in-depth previews and predictions for every match from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football.
Argentina's Lionel Messi kisses the World Cup trophy after collecting the Golden Ball award on December 18, 2022Sign up for our FREE daily preview newsletter direct to your inbox!