As he sits on the brink of 100 Test appearances, George Ford says his first remains “the proudest memory of my career”.
Albeit a short one.
“I wasn’t on the field very long! I managed to sneak on for a minute,” he says.
“I was trying to be present in the moment.
“As a kid you dream of it, it is a bit surreal when you actually do it, especially at Twickenham in front of 80,000 people and your family.”
It was March 2014 against Wales in the Six Nations. After replacing Owen Farrell, Ford fed Billy Twelvetrees a short ball and kicked long up to opposition wing George North in his two involvements before the final whistle.
But while Twelvetrees and North are now seeing out their careers in second-tier club rugby, Ford, who is 32, is still a Test operator.
“The game has changed a lot in 11 years,” he says.
“There was a lot more time and space back then. Defences bring more line speed, the physicality seems to have gone up another level and the speed of the game has gone up.
“Forwards are ending up like backs and backs are ending up like forwards these days.
“In Test rugby, every area is so contested – the breakdown, in the air or the set-piece – if you are not quite on it, you get punished.
“Maybe there was a bit of margin for error 11 years ago but there definitely isn’t now.”
