George Ford Joins England Rugby Centurions

Rugby union fans from the UK and Ireland will largely be focusing on the Lions and their tour of Australia at the moment. However, whilst that united, representative team, that many fans feel so passionately about, will grab most of the headlines, there is plenty of other rugby taking place at the moment too.

Before the lengthy tour of the British & Irish Lions concludes Down Under, England will face two more games. They’ll be meeting Argentina for the second time on the 12th of July, before going up against the easiest test, at least in theory, of the USA on the 19th of the month.

Ford has never played for the Lions but came close to selection this time. Back in 2017, he was also considered unfortunate to miss out and instead toured Argentina with England. And eight years on, it is a very similar scenario, with Irish legend Brian O’Driscoll saying Ford was “unfortunate” and even suggesting he was perhaps the best player “over the course of the last 30 or 40 years that hasn’t yet played for the Lions”.

Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of that decision, Ford will serve as a co-captain in Argentina, alongside Jamie George. Steve Borthwick, the head coach, has opted for a strong team to take on the Pumas, although he does give debuts to two players, Seb Atkinson and Will Muir.

Ford, 32, is very much at the other end of the spectrum experience-wise, and when he ran out at the Estadio Jorge Luis Hirschi in La Plata last Saturday, he joined a very elite group of players to reach triple-digit caps for England.

Ford’s England Career

Ford was born in Oldham and his father, also born in the Lancashire town, was a superb scrum-half in the 13-man code, playing for Wigan, as well as a variety of other clubs, including two stints in Australia. He played 10 times for Great Britain before moving into coaching, initially in rugby league but then predominantly in union.

George and his older brother Joe, however, only ever played league at a very young age, before focusing on rugby union. George initially made his name with Leicester, joining at the age of just 16, having already played for the England U18 team when just 15. At the age of 16 years and 237 days, he became the youngest player to appear in a senior rugby union game, his Leicester facing a Leeds Tykes side that featured his brother Joe!

It was clear that the younger brother was destined for great things and having already played for England at U18 and U20 level, as well as an England A side, he made his full international debut in March 2014. He was a week shy of his 21st birthday and came off the bench against Wales in the Six Nations, also getting 10 minutes in the final game of that year’s championship against Italy.

His career has not always been plain sailing, and relatively early on he was dropped by then-England boss Stuart Lancaster, who favoured childhood friend Owen Farrell. Farrell, of course, is also the son of a Wigan icon, Andy, and it was Owen’s record that Ford broke when he became the youngest player in professional English rugby right at the start of his career.

Aside from a few other minor hiccups, and of course the disappointment at missing out on Lions selection more than once, the trajectory of Ford’s career has been steadily upwards. He might not have hit the heights that he (or others) hoped, when he was named the World Rugby Junior Player of the Year in 2011, but he has still had one heck of a career.

He made it to the World Cup final in 2019 with England and has helped them to three successes in the Six Nations (2016, 2017 and 2020). At club level, he has two Premiership titles to his name, both with Leicester, whilst he has been on the losing side in the European Challenge Cup final with both the Tigers and Bath.

Since his debut over a decade ago, he has been, certainly for the most part, a fixture in this England team. He has played 99 times, accumulating well over 5,000 minutes on the pitch and scoring 10 tries. He boasts more than 400 points for England and will hope to reach 500 before he is done. When he walks onto the pitch against Argentina on the 5th of July, he will become a cap centurion. But who else has managed that for England?

Seven Centurions Before Ford

Ford will become the eighth man to reach 100 test caps for England and he will share the pitch on Saturday with one of the original seven. Jamie George is the most recent player to make it to three figures, and the co-captain boasts 101 caps for England. That puts him in joint-sixth place for now, with Danny Care, though he will move ahead of the former Harlequins scrum-half when he plays in Ford’s 100th game.

George and Ford have some way to go, though, if they are to catch England’s most-capped player. Ben Youngs, who retired from all rugby in April 2025, played a massive 127 times for his country between 2010 and 2023. Youngs, a scrum-half who spent his whole career at Leicester, scored 20 tries for England.

Second and third on the list are two props, Dan Cole (118 caps) and Jason Leonard (114). Leonard was part of England’s World Cup-winning group in 2003 and retired the following year, whilst Cole, another Leicester man, also retired at the end of the 2024/25 campaign. Behind those two comes Owen Farrell, capped 112 times, including five years spent as the skipper.

Farrell has not played for England since 2023, stepping back in 2024 for the sake of his mental health. He became available for selection once more in 2025 and may yet add to his tally of caps. Fifth on the list is Courtney Lawes, another player who has recently retired from international duty. The Northampton legend, now at Brive, played 105 times for England, retiring after the 2023 World Cup.