SIMILARITIES BETWEEN JAMIE GEORGE AND DYLAN HARTLEY AS CAPTAIN ARE EERIE
If, as Mark Twain reputedly once said, “history does not repeat itself but it certainly rhymes” then Jamie George currently finds himself in a position of hearing a distant song that will sound faintly familiar.
Once it was George as the young tyro trying to dislodge Dylan Hartley, who retained his place as England’s hooker largely on the basis of the strength of his leadership. For the best part of a year, George was outplaying Hartley – who at one stage was barely performing better than Northampton team-mate Mikey Haywood – in both the loose as a ball-carrier and even with his lineout throwing.
George was even deemed good enough to start three Tests for the Lions against New Zealand but not for England. His first 18 Test caps were as a replacement before Eddie Jones finally gave him a start against Samoa in November 2017 only quickly to return him to the bench.
Now the hunter becomes the hunted. There is no doubt that George will start England’s back-to-back Tests against New Zealand. As head coach Steve Borthwick made clear in announcing the squad, George has been an “exceptional captain” since taking over from Owen Farrell. Guiding a young England team through the Six Nations while dealing with the death of his mother was impressive enough without also acting as a one-man public relations campaign to buy shares in Borthwick’s new England project.
To repeat, George is not going anywhere in the short term. Yet casting an eye over an unsentimental spreadsheet of statistics suggests his position will be under threat sooner rather than later. Among Six Nations hookers, George ranked second last for carries, metres gained and gainline success according to statistics released by Opta.
His one great calling card remains his lineout throwing which was the second best in the tournament at 90.6 per cent - a metric that holds outsized influence with Borthwick who once caught George’s arrows in the Premiership for Saracens.
Yet that trump card does not apply in the Premiership where George trails his main rivals, Curtis Langdon [who misses this tour through injury], Luke Cowan-Dickie and his clubmate Theo Dan, in lineout success rate, albeit by the smallest of margins. Compared to that trio George is at the bottom of nearly every statistical category run by Opta except for attacking rucks hit. There is a particularly pronounced difference between the ball-carrying of Dan gaining 55.9 metres and beating 5.15 defenders per game versus George [6.1 and 0.5]. There is no doubt about who is the more dynamic player much as Haywood was in his battle with Hartley at Franklin’s Gardens.
Borthwick’s template does not require every player to be an all-action superstar. See tighthead prop Dan Cole whose instructions are to scrum, tackle and hit rucks in that order. He only has a passing acquaintance with the ball, touching it just once against Japan.
George’s biggest strength right now is his leadership. Borthwick’s announcement of four vice-captains under George brings to mind the great line from Peep Show where Jeremy orders four naan breads in an Indian restaurant much to Mark’s consternation, “Four Naan, Jeremy? Four? That’s insane.”
It also betrays the fact there is no clearcut successor to George right now, even if Maro Itoje or Ben Earl may eventually grow in that role. This was Jones’s bind with Hartley for so long, playing him long past the point at which George had emerged as the superior alternative.
Jones described Hartley as his “foundational captain”. Once the building blocks were in place and Hartley’s fitness faltered, Jones dropped him like a stone. According to Hartley’s autobiography, Jones effectively ended his Test career by telling him “You’re f-----, mate!”
Borthwick has a lot more class than that but shares a similar ruthless streak twinned with a fundamentalist faith in the cold hard data. Borthwick praised George for his ability to “glue people together” but eventually that solvent wears away.
George will turn 37 during the next World Cup, but can look to the example of fellow hookers Keven Mealamu and Deon Fourie who won the World Cup with New Zealand and South Africa at 36 and 37 respectively.
More than anything, what kept Hartley ahead of George in the queue was England’s initial success under Jones. That kept the Northampton man in credit long over his account was left overdrawn by his individual performances. Victory in New Zealand will go a long way to securing George’s position, fitness permitting.
But just as he was once the one hammering at Hartley’s door so now George will start hearing the increasingly loud knocks of the pretenders to his throne.
2024-06-27T16:35:31Z dg43tfdfdgfd