{"id":521456,"date":"2026-03-06T01:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T01:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/521456\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T01:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T01:23:08","slug":"toughest-italy-test-can-be-defining-moment-for-england-says-jamie-george-six-nations-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/521456\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Toughest\u2019 Italy Test can be defining moment for England, says Jamie George | Six Nations 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jamie George is braced for England\u2019s \u201ctoughest ever\u201d Test against Italy but believes Saturday\u2019s Six Nations<\/a> clash can be the defining moment for a much-maligned squad.<\/p>\n

George also admitted England\u2019s Six Nations collapse<\/a>, which has ruled them out of contention for the title for another year, has been down to a lack of \u201chard work\u201d and \u201cfight\u201d, insisting the players owe it to supporters and Steve Borthwick to make amends in Rome.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old hooker has replaced Luke Cowan-Dickie in the starting lineup to face the Azzurri, one of 12 changes \u2013 nine personnel and three positional \u2013 by Borthwick.<\/p>\n

England have won all 32 previous matches against Italy, but Gonzalo Quesada\u2019s side began their campaign with victory over Scotland<\/a> and have been backed by the South Africa coach, Rassie Erasmus, to shock England.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, what we haven\u2019t seen enough of in the last couple of weeks is spirit, fight, hard work and graft,\u201d said George. \u201cLet\u2019s be completely honest, over the last 12 months you would characterise this team by that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be really clear on how we get back there, why it hasn\u2019t been there, and make sure it doesn\u2019t happen again. We are going to need it in bucketloads going over to Rome. Rome is always a difficult place to play but with this Italian team looking the way they do, it\u2019s going to be the toughest Test that England have ever had against Italy. But bring it on.<\/p>\n

\u201cTimes like these, and I would rather not have them obviously, but they are genuinely the most enjoyable times to be part of a team. You learn a huge amount about people. It\u2019s an opportunity to step up, it\u2019s an opportunity to bring people with you. It can be a defining moment for a team moving forward, and I think it will be.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe owe it to everyone. We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to the England fans, we owe it to Steve and every single member of staff in the group because we are lucky and \u00adprivileged enough to represent the whole country. We owe it to \u00adabsolutely everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with Ellis Genge, George is one of two vice-captains supporting Maro Itoje in Rome, with the other, George Ford, omitted from the squad. Last week, Borthwick invited nine of England\u2019s<\/a> 2003 World Cup winners to have dinner with his squad and George was left in no doubt as to the importance of the senior leadership group when backs are against the wall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was so much to take away,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat they spoke about a lot was the togetherness and how tight the senior player group was. Their leaders in their team showed the way, set the standards and showed what was expected 24\/7. It\u2019s a nice little reminder for us, especially off the back of two losses, that we are doubling down on senior players stepping up.\u201d<\/p>\n

George also pinpointed England\u2019s sluggish starts as a key reason for their campaign being blown off course in such spectacular fashion. Against Scotland, they were 17-0 down after 15 minutes while Ireland had marched into a 22-0 lead with just half an hour on the clock.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we haven\u2019t done over the last couple of weeks is start well,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then our reaction to that has been poor. Actually, we looked a little bit shellshocked, a little bit isolated, this shouldn\u2019t be happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Borthwick is under pressure after back-to-back defeats for England. Photograph: Adam Davy\/PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jamie George is braced for England\u2019s \u201ctoughest ever\u201d Test against Italy but believes Saturday\u2019s Six Nations clash can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-521456","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\/521456","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=521456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}