Roly wrote:Iain wrote:I have every confidence that George Ford will be excellent for us. He was a very good player when he left but needed a bit of development. Bath have developed him for us, we now get him back a better player. Thanks Bath!
Double edged sword though isn't it, because Tigers will lose Ford to England duties, whereas Tigers didn't worry about Burns being unavailable for significant periods of time during the season (unless injured).
I don't disagree with you. That was a big benefit of Burns. Like I said, an answer to a question nobody was asking.
Roly wrote:
FWIW, I don't think Ford is any more 'flakey' than Burns was - Eddie Jones certainly favours Ford, so he must be doing something right. Still, Fordy has gone a bit wayward at times, it was his missed tackle and 'at the death' kick that handed the Challenge Cup to their French opponents.
To be fair, I think 'was' is the operative word here. Burns has, for me, matured and become more consistent. He's not lost his flair, but has added control to his repertoire too.
Ford's Achilles heel has always been his ability to grind a performance out behind a pack on the back foot. Hopefully there's two answers to that:
1. The way Genge is developing as a destructive loosehead in tandem with Cole on the other side ought to lessen the occasions we're on the back foot.
2. Ford's maturing. Adding increased control to his game isn't beyond him and neither is improving his kicking. Burns managed it us, why not Ford?
I'm confident it will work out well for us, but I'm sad that we're losing Freddie. I've enjoyed watching him play.