{"id":215145,"date":"2025-10-15T11:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/215145\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T11:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:50:07","slug":"george-ford-turns-down-r360-riches-for-last-shot-at-england-world-cup-glory-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/215145\/","title":{"rendered":"George Ford turns down R360 riches for last shot at England World Cup glory | Sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Ford has turned down the riches on offer from R360 for one last shot at a Rugby World Cup with England. The 32-year-old revealed he was approached by the rebel circuit<\/a>, fronted by the former England centre Mike Tindall, but rejected a deal believed to be worth \u00a31m a season to chase his dream.<\/p>\n

Ford, who reached a century of caps last summer, has signed a three-year contract extension with Sale<\/a> which will ensure his availability for the 2027 tournament in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs players, we understand what\u2019s going on with trying to set up this new league and they did contact my agent to have discussions,\u201d said Ford. \u201cMy decision-making was purely based on the fact that I love playing for England and I\u2019ve got an unbelievable desire to keep playing for England. It\u2019s the same with Sale Sharks. I\u2019ve loved my time here.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt never really got any further than that with the conversations with the proposed new league. There were a couple of opportunities overseas but that would then mean that you\u2019re calling time on your international career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had three different experiences in the three World Cups I\u2019ve been to. We didn\u2019t make it out of the pool in 2015, lost the final in 2019 and lost the semi-final and then won the third place play-off in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all give valuable lessons but the real reason you do it is to win trophies. That feeling of satisfaction that you\u2019ve actually gone and worked hard and smart to achieve something at the end of it \u2013 it\u2019s a massive motivation. There\u2019s no better motivation than winning for England. It\u2019s not just about representing England, you want to be part of a winning team.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are no guaranteed rewards for loyalty and for all that Ford is playing some of the best rugby of his career, he acknowledges he faces stronger competition than ever for the England No 10 shirt. Fin and Marcus Smith were picked ahead of him by Andy Farrell for the British & Irish Lions and there is also the intriguing possibility of Owen Farrell returning to Steve Borthwick\u2019s England squad now he is back with Saracens. \u201cI\u2019d imagine Steve\u2019s quite happy having four options like that,\u201d said Ford.<\/p>\n

He has no inside information, he insists, from his close friend Farrell over whether the former England captain does intend to put himself forward for international selection, but Ford is pleased to see him in the Prem again after his season of struggle at Racing 92.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt probably felt a bit weird last year not having Owen in the English game,\u201d said Ford. \u201cIt\u2019s great to have him back and I think he\u2019s fully settled in with his family. I know the influence he\u2019ll be having at Saracens. You can just watch that over the first two or three games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Old friends George Ford (left) and Owen Farrell face each other in the Prem when Sale meet Saracens on Saturday. Photograph: Alex Davidson\/RFU\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The pair face each other on Saturday when Saracens and Sale meet at the StoneX Stadium.<\/p>\n

Ford has started the domestic season in the same imperious form he showed on England\u2019s summer tour where he co-captained England to a series win in Argentina. That trip underlined to him that England are assembling impressive depth at the halfway point of the World Cup cycle. He name-checks the Bath flanker Guy Pepper \u2013 \u201che has definitely got an unbelievable future ahead of him playing for England\u201d \u2013 and the Gloucester centre Seb Atkinson as particularly valuable finds.<\/p>\n

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The coaching additions on that tour also impressed him, and evidently Borthwick too. The England head coach signed up Lee Blackett from Bath full-time and is trying to bring in Byron McGuigan from Sale on a job share arrangement in time for the autumn Tests.<\/p>\n

Ford already knew McGuigan, the Sharks defence coach, but felt a kinship working with the attack specialist Blackett for the first time. \u201cHe came in and added unbelievably well to our attack. He has got a very positive mindset, he wants us to be dangerous and go and score some tries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford, with his rugby computer of a mind, has his own ideas on how England need to evolve their attack. \u201cThe French teams are great at the unstructured side of it; the English DNA is more structured, If we can find a midpoint of that then we\u2019ll be in a good spot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Like his father Mike and brother Joe, he will inevitably become a coach one day. But for the time being it is all about maximising the return from his remaining years as a player in whatever way he can.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn recent months, I\u2019ve been doing a lot more pilates. I know that sounds funny but what it has done to help my hip, my back, my kicking, everything has been great,\u201d he said. \u201cWe feel as rugby players we\u2019re strong. When you\u2019re in the gym you can lift weights and stuff but that has exposed a few areas in terms of weaknesses. I wish I\u2019d have started it a bit earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Ford has turned down the riches on offer from R360 for one last shot at a Rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-215145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}