Jamie George: I understand why England fans booed us – we need an overhaul

Jamie George has pledged that England intend to evolve their attacking style as part of a radical overhaul of the Twickenham experience for supporters, admitting he understood the reasons why the side were booed during the World Cup in France.

The new England captain is determined to put fan engagement at the heart of his tenure and revealed that the players for the first time have also made representations to the Rugby Football Union about improving the match-day experience for supporters.

Proposals include extending the England squad’s walk into Twickenham Stadium to allow for greater fan engagement, the use of music during matches to create a better atmosphere, more time for autographs and photographs with fans after games, more interactions with the media and social media to connect with fans and a longer-term goal of attracting a more diverse supporter base.

George revealed the players have also held discussions with England head coach Steve Borthwick about placing a greater emphasis on the side’s attacking play, admitting the limited style of the team’s performances at the World Cup had “an implication on why there was booing.”

‘English rugby hasn’t been in the best place’

“English rugby has a lot of work to do,” George said. “If we’re completely honest, English rugby hasn’t been in the best place in terms of teams going bust in the Premiership and grassroots numbers falling.

“We are aware that, at the top of the game, we have an opportunity to reach as many people across England as we can – and change perceptions. There are lots of reasons why participation numbers are going down but the most important thing for us is that we become good role models, and we care about the impact we have on the general English public.

“We are having discussions about how we can engage with fans more. That’s never happened since I have been in the England squad.  We broke up into groups and spoke about the best stadiums we’ve played at and why.

“The walk into the stadium is one of the best moments as an England rugby player, getting off the bus and being hit with a wall of noise. I’ll remember that forever. Rather than drive past thousands of people who are at the Guinness tent, we could walk in from the gate.

“If I was a kid standing by the gate and I just saw the bus go by, that’s a different experience to seeing the bus stop in front of you seeing Maro Itoje and Marcus Smith, and Danny Care and Dan Cole walk past you. Being able to walk through and feel the atmosphere, generate the atmosphere, I think has a positive impact.

“We want Twickenham to be a tough place for oppositions to come and play, and creating an atmosphere like that is important to us as well. We spoke about a more diverse Twickenham. I think it’s all part of a process.

“We have got a responsibility as a team to be successful. The more success we have, the more interest we have in the game across the country. Off the back of that, the more outreach we can have, the better. It’s not for me to say about the ticket pricing and the rest of it. But reaching the right target audience is important for us as a team.”

English rugby’s greatest recruiting sergeant remains a winning England team and with a record of just two wins in each of the last three Guinness Six Nations championships, and a win ratio at Twickenham of just 50 per cent in the last three seasons, has not been good enough.

‘People want to see tries’

And yet while winning Tests will remain the bottom-line objective, George also wants to evolve the side’s attacking style, in a manner that Saracens achieved last season in winning the Premiership.

“Ultimately this team will base its game plan on winning games,” George added. “That has to be at the forefront, but at the same time conversations are certainly being had around how we get people off their seats. People want to see tries. The conversations that we’re having with Richard Wigglesworth (England attack coach) at the minute are around our attack, how excited we can get around our attack.

“Felix Jones (England’s new defence coach) has come in and his energy is 11 out of 10. The intensity that he wants us to defend at, I think will get people off their seats. The physicality we can show, people can get behind us on that front.

“Any person turning on the TV, the very baseline of what they’ll see is a huge amount of passion, people enjoying playing for their country, but also fighting like hell and showing a huge amount of character. That’s the bare minimum. If I wasn’t playing, that’s what I would want to see as an England rugby fan.

“Fundamentally, the DNA of any England team is always going to be the same. Set piece and a strong defence. How we evolve our attack and how we try to beat teams, make line breaks, score tries…that’s what we can get excited about. I’m not necessarily saying you will see drastic changes and we turn into the Harlem Globetrotters.

“What we achieved at Saracens was the ability to manipulate the defence. Generally, we kicked the ball a lot, so teams were putting more numbers in the backfield. That meant there was a numerical advantage in the front line. So, let’s get back into position so that we can have a go.

“Steve is always very focussed on making sure this team just gets better. He now has a huge push on bringing the fans on that journey with us.”