George Martin - Hits over hype
Charlie Morgan charts the rise of England and Leicester Tigers lock George Martin, who is fulfilling the potential that has been obvious for years.
You would think that Tommy Reffell, as a turnover specialist, tends to linger close to George Martin in the defensive line. But there is one major problem with hanging around one of his best friends at Leicester Tigers.
“To be honest, George normally hits people too far back,” Reffell jokes. “I can’t really get on the ball. He’s in great form. If you get hit by him, you stay hit.”
Reffell, the Wales flanker, has known Martin since the latter was 17. At that stage, excited whispers around the East Midlands were already proclaiming that Tigers had unearthed a gem. The phrase “a new Martin Johnson” was being uttered with regularity. It might be easy for such hype to be distracting and damaging, particularly because it swelled as Leicester landed back-to-back academy U18 titles between 2018-2019. Martin, however, stayed steady.
“From an early stage, we’re talking 15 or 16 years old, it was already obvious that George was both a big man and somebody who was also a really skilful footballer,” explains Jamie Taylor, who coached a teenage Martin at Tigers. “He had the ability to move the ball really nicely. He stood out for a lot of his attacking ability. It might sound trite to say it but he’s also a really humble, hard-working human being.
“As all teenagers do, he had some struggles with finding his way, but he’s been positively influenced by the club and, particularly, by his parents David and Claudia. They have been, and remain, fantastic for him as far as navigating the difficulties he faced, including the expectations that were on him.”
Those expectations only heightened with Martin’s ascension to the senior set-up. In August 2020, shortly after the sport restarted following lockdown, he was handed a Premiership debut by Steve Borthwick against a Bath team bound for the play-offs.
Leicester were beaten 38-16 at Welford Road, yet Martin started at blind-side flanker and completed 25 tackles; 10 more than any teammate. Taylor has been impressed by how Martin has acclimatised to the collisions and confrontation at elite level.
“The journey for him since the academy has been an interesting one because he’s gone from being a good, attacking footballer who is a big man to being one of the best defenders in world rugby at the moment – certainly among forwards, anyway,” Taylor says.
“He’s the one guy that you do not want to run square into. He’s been able to shape himself into a world-class player. He’s an ambitious lad who hasn’t been derailed by any of the trappings that accolades get you.”
Tom Harrison, currently the England scrum guru, has been an influential mentor, given he coached Martin at Brooksby Melton College as well as at Tigers, and now with the national side. A special peer group at Leicester is just as important. “He was also around a group of players that were really driving one another on,” Taylor adds. “Freddie Steward, Jack van Poortvliet, Sam Costelow, Ollie Chessum and Dan Kelly but also other lads. Another big factor in George’s development has been the people around him.”
Before he had turned 20, Martin was a surprise Test debutant under Eddie Jones. Initially a member of the ‘shadow squad’ for the 2021 Six Nations, he was an unused replacement against Wales and was then drafted onto the bench in Dublin when Max Malins withdrew. A brief cameo in a losing cause was enough to feature a textbook tackle on Robbie Henshaw.
Over the past three and a half years, injuries have challenged Martin’s mental and physical resilience. They also kept him waiting until the 2023 World Cup warm-ups for a second cap. The wait was worthwhile. At that tournament in France, having started alongside Maro Itoje in the semi-final against South Africa, Martin epitomised the defensive determination and toughness of England by forcing Franco Mostert to spill the ball metres from the try-line.
“He’s good, he’s hard,” says Siya Kolisi, the Springboks captain, on mention of Martin. “When the guys in England talk about him, they say he’s one of the hard guys who doesn’t shy away from the physical side of the game. He’s got a big heart, and he wears his heart on his sleeve. It’s always good when guys like that take their opportunity.”
As has become apparent, even plaudits from a modern great are unlikely to skew Martin’s focus. Taylor remembers numerous conversations with him on the pitch, either after training or a match. Martin was invariably inquisitive, asking where he could improve. “Typically, he’d be expressing a level of frustration that he wanted to be better, and he wasn’t satisfied with what he’d just done,” Taylor says.
Reffell sounds genuinely awestruck when he speaks about the diligence and professionalism of his Leicester colleague. In the wake of last year’s Rugby World Cup, keen to address his knee issues, Martin flew Stateside and sought the advice of Bill Knowles, a Philadelphia-based leading expert in ‘reconditioning’ whose glittering list of clients includes Tiger Woods, Frank Lampard and Andy Murray.
Though still just 23, Martin clearly holds significant value to Borthwick and England. He has received one of 17 enhanced Elite Player Squad contracts and started the first Autumn Nations Series encounter against New Zealand despite a calf niggle keeping him out of domestic action over the preceding weeks.
During a recent podcast appearance with Dan Cole and Ben Youngs on ‘For the Love of Rugby’, Martin outlined his philosophy. “I play because I want to have a good time with my mates and help the team in whatever way I can,” he said. “I’m not interested in how many Instagram likes I’m getting. That’s not really what drives me.”
As Reffell suggests, there is a certain presence about Martin. Selfless and steely, he is precisely the sort of figure that players prefer to be alongside rather than opposite. Reffell sums up best: “Everything he does, he does with purpose.”
