“You ignore it but I always think [winning the title] is the elephant in the room in professional sport,” said George, 33. “Sometimes you might just brush things under the carpet a little bit. But why? Let’s talk about what the possibilities are, yes, but also not allow it to distract you. What might happen, what Ireland might do in the Scotland game is out of our control, what we can do is make sure that we use the possibility of winning a trophy as motivation that we’re in the right headspace come the game.
“I don’t see any issue with having an understanding of what might happen and if things go our way in terms of other results we need to be prepared. Because we’ll know that is happening, we’ll be checking our phones for the scores, you’d be lying if you said you weren’t going to be watching that game. Before every game so far this Six Nations, whenever we’ve been at 4.45pm I’m watching the 2.15pm kick-off because I like watching rugby so I’ll be watching – we’ve also got a vested interest.”
For the first time in this year’s Six Nations, Steve Borthwick has named Manu Tuilagi in his matchday squad. The 32-year-old will depart Sale Sharks at the end of this season, and should his destination be overseas as is expected, Saturday night in Lyon would mark an international farewell for the centre, capped 59 times. George admits England’s leadership group will tap into that emotion, even if Tuilagi’s future remains uncertain.
“This could be my last game for England, it could be some others’ last game for England,” said George. “There is no tomorrow in that respect, and sometimes it’s good to use that.
“I think he will go down as one of the best centres to have ever played for England, I’m pretty confident to be able to say that. He’s someone whose injuries have held him back from achieving some very, very special things.
“And I’m not saying he hasn’t achieved special things along the way as well, he is an amazing player. I think something that is really special for me is that he doesn’t say an awful lot, but what he does say is gold.
“We got some things really right emotionally last week in the build-up and probably a lot of that came from sticking two fingers up to some people who were saying some bad things about us after the Scotland game, and having two weeks of build-up into that.
“But you can use different things to drive emotion, and I think whenever you’re playing for England you’re obviously proud and you want to show that. But there’s obviously other tools that you can use and other avenues that you can use, and Manu’s certainly been that throughout his career for England. I’m not saying he talks a huge amount, but sometimes sat around in a circle, the second he starts talking, people listen, it’s quiet, and more often than not it’s absolute wisdom.”