George Ford

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

MT is a classic Anzac 2nd 5, 8th as they call them.
Don't forget that Dan Carter played 12 for the crusaders when he first got into the team outside Mertens & Mauger was at 12 in his early AB matches.
If GF & MT can't gel together it would be rather odd, at times we haven't made the best use of them as a pair to create confusion in the opposition.
The 9,10,12 first choice we have is the best in the AP by a country mile, they just need the forwards to do there job.
When I first watched Tigers our forwards we frequently 2nd best, but our backs treasured all the ball they got & used it well, as a club we got away from that when our pack beat everyone up & our back play became shocking as the ball kept coming. That isn't going to happen now, we need a bit of retro thinking & play.

[trendylfj]

As an ex FB/SO/SH(as I got older and slower - lol), I always felt then as I feel today - Give me good fast ball and I can get away from the big lumps and do some damage! Give me slow ball and those self same big lumps could damage me. MT has looked better than GF did simply because he was given good ball by the big lumps and GF wasn't given the same go-forward ball. Therefore it is unfair on GF to be compared to MT's recent performances. If GF is given the same service and doesn't perform then yes he will deserve all the negative comments he will get, but until then, I reserve my opinion.

Before he came I was against his signing and uttered comments like he can't tackle and his kicking stats are too low. Against Ireland when he came on, he made or missed any tackles, against France made 9 and missed 2, against Scotland he made 5 and missed none, against Wales he made 7 and missed 1, and against Italy he made 10 and missed 1. So I feel I must withdraw my reservations re his tackling - made 31 and missed 4. Of course he is not in the JW class as a tackle destroying FH but he doesn't miss many.