JAMIE GEORGE insists England are determined to make Twickenham a “horrible” place for opponents to visit, while also reassuring fans that their intent is to score more tries.
England open their Six Nations against Italy in Rome on Saturday, but George, their captain for the tournament, believes it is the home fixtures against Wales and Ireland that provide crucial opportunities to reconnect with fans.
Head coach Steve Borthwick has highlighted a win ratio of only 50 per cent from the past six Championships as evidence of significant underachievement, and George is keen for that to be addressed with a flourish.
“We want to get Twickenham back to being a place that is horrible to play in for opposition,” George told the PA news agency.
“But at the same time, we want to love representing England at Twickenham. Steve’s very passionate about that too, and it’s a message I love hearing.
“We need to take fans on a journey with us, and we have a responsibility for that through the way that we play, the brand of rugby we play and by showing how passionate we are when we’re on the field.
“If we do that, it will feed into the crowds, and we saw that in the South Africa and Fiji games at the World Cup. That’s the sort of environment we want to try to create.
“Style has a role to play. Ultimately, we are a team that makes the right decision at the right time, but the way we play the game is also important to get people off their seats.
“Constantly throughout the World Cup — and we didn’t achieve it quite as much as we wanted to — how we attacked was a focus point because we want to score more tries.
“You get people on their feet when they see tries being scored. We want to create more chances to score. That for me will lead to more excitement in stadiums.”
A feature of George’s World Cup was the sheer volume of minutes he played due to the inexperience of supporting hookers Theo Dan and Jack Walker.
And with Luke Cowan-Dickie missing the start of the Six Nations for undisclosed medical reasons, the Saracens front row could be set for another heavy workload — a prospect he relishes.
“I was pleased with how the World Cup went. There are certain areas that I need to be better at, but that’s natural,” he said.
“In terms of playing minutes, I want to be on the field in every minute of the game. I would never complain about that because I’ve been on the other side of the coin and sat on the bench for 80 minutes, which isn’t very nice.
“I will never complain about playing too much rugby, I absolutely love it. I will never take it for granted being on the field at any stage. For me, it’s something I love so much.
“A strength of mine has always been my fitness and my ability to stay involved in a game. The more time I spend in a game the better I feel almost.”
