England missed George, says Joe

WORLD CUP OVER . . . George Ford.

SALE’S Joe Ford thinks England paid the price for dropping his brother George at the World Cup.

England were dumped out of the competition after Oldham-born fly–half George was controversially benched for defeats against Wales and Australia.

Joe Ford said: “It’s easy to say I’m biased, but England attacked more with George in the Six Nations.

“You have got to score tries against teams like Australia because they are going to score tries, they are that good. It’s easy to say with hindsight, but maybe if George had got more game time it might have been a different story.”

George is set to return to the starting line–up for England’s final game of the tournament, a dead rubber against Uruguay in Manchester on Saturday.

The Ford family has been in the news this week with Mike Ford, the former Great Britain rugby league

international and Oldham RL coach, who is now at Bath, touted as a potential new England chief.