England captain George playing for mum’s memory vs. Scotland،
EDINBURGH, Scotland — When head coach Steve Borthwick offered Jamie George the chance to captain England in early January, Jamie turned to his mother, Jane, for advice.
On the same day that she was given the greatest honor of her career, news came that Jane was suffering from lung cancer. Jamie's first instinct was to wonder if it was a good idea to go to the England camp.
“When I told my mom and dad that I was captain and said I wasn't sure if it was the right thing or not given the circumstances, my mom was literally upset,” he told reporters Thursday. “She told me, 'You can't not accept this because of me.'”
Tragically, from then on, Jane's deterioration was brutally rapid. In the run-up to the Six Nations, she had never missed one of Jamie's matches, but as he led England in Rome and then at Twickenham against Wales on February 10, she watched on television, too sick to travel.
“That was really difficult in itself,” Jamie said.
The day after Wales' victory, Jamie and his family discovered his cancer was terminal. Four days later, on Wednesday February 14, she died.
He found comfort in rugby. This Saturday, 10 days after losing his mother, Jamie George will lead England against Scotland in the Calcutta Cup.
“When you get on the field, everything that happened outside of it, it's actually quite a nice feeling to be able to forget everything that happened before,” he said . “Of course I will use motivation, I want to win for her and I want to win as much as possible in her memory.”
Jamie wanted to talk about his mother this week. The England captain spoke to a small group of media on Thursday evening in Edinburgh, around 48 hours before the Six Nations match against Scotland. The Calcutta Cup is one of the most notable events in the sport. A fierce rivalry puts pride on the line and produces the kind of games Jamie's mother loved to watch.
“She’s always been there,” he said. “She never missed it. We had quite a few heated debates.
“She was very vocal when I first started playing rugby, especially professional rugby. It must be a difficult transition; you go from watching your son play for Haileybury School in front of 12 people all year round The next day I was playing at Vicarage Road for Saracens in front of 20,000 people. Her volume level didn't change, even though she was sitting in a family box with everyone else's families!
Jane was there to watch every stage of Jamie's Saracens and England career, from the man who broke through to international rugby to the starting front rower and his journey to 87 Test caps.
“It shows how amazing this sport is, the power of sport and until the day she died she was a huge fan of Saracens and English rugby,” Jamie said. “It's amazing that I was able to give her such an incredible life, traveling the world after my matches. She and my dad [Ian] traveled everywhere and I know she found great joy in following this team.”
Rugby has always been important to the George family.
“Rugby was a big part of his life, I think it kept our family together in a way and it shows what an amazing sport it is,” Jamie said. “She was the biggest rugby fan in the world, she loved this team, loved watching me play, she never missed a match.
“The text I received from her before my first match [as captain] is something I will cherish forever. She said it was the proudest day of her life. Considering what she was going through, to still be able to have a smile on her face is huge.”
Since his mother's diagnosis, whenever there was a break in the Six Nations camp, Jamie would go to visit her.
“The first question she asked me was: 'How is Marcus Smith?' She kind of lost her voice towards the end, so the conversations were difficult, but the few conversations we had were largely around the team.
“We got to have some pretty horrible conversations that no one ever wants to have, but there were some incredible conversations I had with my mom towards the end. Those kinds of things put everything into perspective.”
Two days after his death, England held an open training session at Twickenham.
“She passed away on Wednesday, Thursday I came home and my dad said to me, 'Do you think you're going to come to this training session? I think it would be good for you to come back with the boys .'”
Jamie was there, leading the team, signing autograph after autograph for his fans. No one in the stands would have known what he was dealing with. It was only later in the day, after the session, that he posted on Instagram about his mother's death.
The England team rallied behind its captain. He has some incredibly close friends on the team, the ones who were by his side when he got married. But there are the new faces in the group who have bought into the culture he has brought since becoming captain. He believes their closeness is a sign of promise for what they are building as a group. But it is also a sign of the high esteem he enjoys, both within the team and within the sport.
“Jamie George has a strength in him that I think some people underestimate,” Borthwick said. “He has a quiet strength which is phenomenal and it's one of the great assets that makes him a brilliant captain. He must have been very strong. All the players are right behind him and supporting him. I would describe him as a some of the strongest people I have ever met.”
His teammates echo this.
“That’s the sign of an incredible man, an incredible leader,” guard George Furbank said. “It's been a pretty tough time for him and his family. To go through that and then come back to camp and lead the boys with no real difference is incredibly impressive. It gave the boys extra motivation to galvanize around him.”
But for the captain, the feeling is that he does not want the attention to be on him on Saturday but rather on the collective. Yet when he walks with the team and sees his father and two brothers in the stands, memories of his mother will remain at the forefront of his mind.
“It’s what my mother would have wanted,” he said. “Wherever she is now, she will look down and tell everyone that her son is the captain of England. I know for a fact that that meant an awful lot to her.
“Every time I've played, I've always wanted to make my family proud. That's been a huge drive for me. That won't change this weekend – it will probably be improved this weekend. It will be emotional for me to come This will be the first match where she will not be there.
When the first ball flies, Jamie goes into game mode. He'll go from lineout to lineout, from range to range, doing what he's done throughout his career to become one of the best attackers of world rugby, finding solace in the sport that has given him so much. He was never going to miss this. Jane just wouldn't let him.
“For me, I wanted to get into this,” Jamie said. “It's been an incredible outlet for me and it's what my mother would want. It's certainly what I want: playing for this team has been the highlight of my life and it always will be. Being able to Being captain of this team is without a doubt the highlight of my career and she would have wanted me to go for it.
“She said how proud she was of me. She wasn't just proud of my accomplishments, she was proud of how I achieved them and that won't change despite everything that's happened. My motivation is still high and coming back to camp has been amazing because of the amazing people we have here.
“When I became captain, I talked a lot about showing how much it means to you to play for England and what an incredible impact you can have on people's lives. I saw it with my own eyes. My mother was on her deathbed talking about the England rugby team and how proud she was that I can do what I do. It's absolutely incredible. She will be with me to some extent on Saturday and that means a lot to me.”
