Full-blooded commitment and pride
This feature is from Saturday's England v Wales match day programme.
By Alex Spink.
The England skipper finds leadership fascinating and wants his style to be inclusive to get the best from his teammates.
Jamie George put down his phone and thought of Sir Alex Ferguson. One by one he turned his mind to past encounters with Gareth Southgate, Sir Alastair Cook and Roy Keane.
It was January and he had been invited by England head coach Steve Borthwick to step up and captain his country. “It was a bit like a proposal,” George recalls. Borthwick told him to take the weekend to think about it.
So, he thought back to the day Sir Alex addressed the England rugby squad, offering his unique insight into the man-management techniques that served him so well.
He remembered quizzing Southgate, being spellbound by Keane’s no-nonsense take on life, listening to Cook detail the challenges of managing different personality types.
“The main lesson I’ve learned is that they’ve all doubled down on what they believe in,” says George. “In that respect people know what they’re going to get out of you as a person.
“Leadership is something I’ve found fascinating for a very long time. Everyone has a different style and approach to it. To me, it’s about being very inclusive. The way I view it is I have to build relationships with the people around me, so I have a good understanding of the way to get through to them. That’s something the best leaders I’ve worked under have done.”
George has come a long way since spending the first two years and more of his England career waiting for his first start. Seasons came and went, so too the world record for consecutive appearances as a replacement. The Saracens hooker simply put his shoulder to the wheel and cracked on.
“I was on the bench, but I was still playing, still getting the opportunity to represent my country,” he says. “I’ll never ever take that for granted."
By the time his chance arrived a World Cup had come and gone, so too an England management team. A Grand Slam had been won, a Six Nations title retained, a world record for successive wins achieved.
He had finished 19 Tests for his country, he had even started all three for the 2017 British and Irish Lions in their epic shared series with New Zealand. What he had not done was complain.
“I remember vividly a conversation on the eve of my first cap,” he says, reliving the phone call he made to Robbie George, his uncle and former Northampton hooker.
“Back then you had to do a little speech the night before a game around what it means to you to be playing for England. I wanted to pick his brains.”
Robbie had been responsible for persuading a young Jamie to switch positions from fly half but was never capped. Neither was his brother Ian, Jamie’s father, who warmed the England bench nine times without, cruelly, ever getting on.
“I'll always remember my uncle saying to me, ‘you have a duty to perform whenever you pull on that jersey'.
“Those words have stuck with me forever. I have never lost sight that it is a precious opportunity to represent my family and my friends.”
Ask England fans who they enjoy watching and George always makes the conversation. For his full-blooded commitment but also the oh-so obvious pride with which he plays.
Ask a journalist or broadcaster to name an England player they would wish to reflect on a performance, good or bad, and there he is again. Articulate, open, honest. Always passionate.
The common denominator in all this is the responsibility he feels to represent the shirt in the best possible way, on and off the field. To add value to the legacy left by predecessors John Pullin, Peter Wheeler, Brian Moore, Steve Thompson and Dylan Hartley, while upholding the values rugby union seeks to represent.
How much, one wonders, does his passion for the Rose come from dad missing out?
“One hundred per cent,” he says. “My dad’s a very humble man. He doesn't go shouting about his career, in fact he plays it down. But as soon as I came onto the rugby scene a lot of people spoke to me about how good a player he was.
“It was then, for the first time really, that I asked him about his career. He never got that opportunity, and I'm sure it is a big regret of his - one I could certainly relate to in the first period of my England career, stuck behind Dylan for that world record number of games.”
Regrets? Most England players of recent vintage have a few. Be it the 2019 World Cup final, that last-gasp semi-final loss to South Africa in October or too many Six Nations to mention since this rugby nation last conquered the world in 2003.
In elite sport there are always ‘learnings’, as the modern player likes to say. For George the immediate priority is to put right a Six Nations record that even the most ardent England supporter would consider sub optimal.
“The stats don’t lie, do they,” says the 33-year-old. “I’ve been part of those performances and I guess they haven’t been good enough, especially our home form.”
Since last winning the title, behind closed doors in 2020, England have lost as many championship games at Twickenham as they have won. Three successive 2-3 records see George not lacking in motivation.
“To have that sort of record at home, at Twickenham, a place we love playing, a place we want to make a fortress, is hugely disappointing,” he says.
“Like any Six Nations post the World Cup it’s always an exciting time with lots of new faces and lots of opportunity to make things feel different. We saw that after the last two World Cups where we had good success. Our responsibility is to hit the ground running.”
George is right there. In 2016 England won their one and only Grand Slam since 2003. Four years on they pocketed the title and Triple Crown. A nation therefore expects, though no more than the new skipper.
