It was another uncomfortable weekend for George Ford fans. The Leicester Tigers fly half didn’t perform badly against Newcastle Falcons. That is the best that can be said about his performance at Welford Road. For a player of his ability, it was not enough. Playing behind a Leicester pack that destroyed the Falcons at the set piece, he let the game drift from the home team.

Ford’s flight of imagination has been grounded. The balance between the sneaking breaks and the stream of accurate passes has been replaced with an almost monotonous distribution, too far from the opposing back line to threaten, too lacking in variety to make defenders think. Frankly, any half-decent footballer could have done as much as Ford in what proved a