{"id":375274,"date":"2025-08-26T15:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/375274\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T15:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:37:15","slug":"toby-flood-names-george-ford-as-worlds-best-fly-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/375274\/","title":{"rendered":"Toby Flood names George Ford as world’s best fly half"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former England fly-half Toby Flood has named George Ford as the greatest number 10 in world rugby currently, as he claims that the Sale Sharks fly-half doesn\u2019t get enough recognition.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking to AceOdds<\/a> about England\u2019s recent tour to America, Flood said: \u201cI thought they played really well and looked really sharp. George Ford was George Ford; he\u2019s probably been as good a 10 in the world for a decent stretch now and probably doesn\u2019t get the recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also showed there\u2019s a lot of talent coming through too. It was really pleasing to see England continue on an upward trend.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow you\u2019re in a situation where they\u2019re going to come back now with those results under their belt, and people will be expecting big things in the autumn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford number one<\/p>\n

Flood explained that even though Ford<\/a> was the only England playmaker who didn\u2019t make the British and Irish Lions, he can\u2019t see Steve Borthwick looking past the 32-year-old for the national side.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t see past George Ford at this time. It\u2019s unbelievably ironic because we had the two lads, Fin and Marcus, on a Lions tour, then suddenly they get usurped by a guy who\u2019s playing, technically, a tier down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was partly down to Owen Farrell being called up. If I were either Fin or Marcus Smith,<\/a> I would be annoyed that Owen, a guy who hasn\u2019t played rugby for two years, comes in and sits on a bench. That\u2019s wrong because he\u2019s not going to be on the next Lions tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would have liked to see Fin or Marcus Smith play a Test match by being on the bench at least. If Andy\u2019s decision was that they weren\u2019t ready for Test match rugby, then don\u2019t take them in the first place. Take George Ford.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that George is exceptional. I can\u2019t see past those three being in the team really. I\u2019d be surprised if Borthwick brought back Owen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expected England line-up<\/p>\n

Naming his expected England playmakers, Flood said: \u201cIt\u2019s going to be Marcus, Fin and George. It would then be George and Fin at fly half, with Marcus being that sort of hybrid player that he\u2019s starting to become, whether he likes it or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s becoming an Austin Healey, who was a wonderful player by the way. He\u2019s that guy who is perfect on the bench, which is terrible for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause when you watch Marcus in the Premiership, he\u2019s fantastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Borthwick is smart, which he is, he\u2019ll position it to them all that how they start the season will be all important and have a big bearing on where they sit in the fold.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks player ratings: Bench \u2019emphatically fails\u2019 in historic defeat while Rieko Ioane is \u2018anonymous\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lions leadership<\/p>\n

Returning to the subject of Andy Farrell, Flood noted: \u201cI\u2019ve always admired Andy Farrell \u2013 he gets the best out of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always admired him as a coach. He gets the best out of people. He has a way and a mannerism to make people understand what the requirements are. He fits being an international coach really well because you can only bang the drum so many times in the manner he does.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere people admire him highly is his ability to get the best out of people and create an environment. He\u2019s done that exceptionally well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he does bang the drum, especially on a Lions tour, he creates a pull or a draw for people to do a little bit, work a little bit harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Admitting that Farrell played it safe with selections of Irish players in Lions Tests, Flood<\/a> said: \u201cHe didn\u2019t go to anyone he didn\u2019t really know. I think he definitely relied a bit on the Irish guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then Gatland did exactly the same thing. He always fell back into who he knew best.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe and Andy have always picked people they know, and they can trust because it\u2019s their reputation on the line as well. So, they\u2019re not going to pick somebody that\u2019s maybe a 50-50 call. I do think he was overly reliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six Nations<\/p>\n

Finally, looking ahead to next year\u2019s Six Nations, the 40-year-old considered: \u201c\u2018It\u2019s arrogant if you say England are best placed, isn\u2019t it?! I\u2019m intrigued by France, because they didn\u2019t do what they should have done in New Zealand. Ireland are getting close to the cusp of having peaked as a side.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would like to see Wales win a proper Test match and put some sort of spirit back into the Welsh club game. England look really well placed.<\/p>\n

\u201cScotland will be interesting. Gregor Townsend seems to be doing a really good job. They had lots of Lions. Can they keep that flow and keep that positivity in Scottish rugby?\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Loose Pass: All Blacks and Springboks facing \u2018fraught task\u2019 as \u2018critical moment\u2019 looms for Scott Robertson and Rassie Erasmus<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former England fly-half Toby Flood has named George Ford as the greatest number 10 in world rugby currently,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,5313,393,20681,4884,225,90462,12,131163,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-375274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-british-and-irish-lions","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-george-ford","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-internationals","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-toby-flood","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115095813721507505","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}