Jamie George has revealed he was offered the England captaincy on the same day he learnt of his mother’s lung cancer diagnosis, as he prepares to lead out the side for the first time since her death.
The Saracens hooker’s mother, Jane, died last Wednesday and he has spoken of the personal anguish that has been a backdrop to this Six Nations campaign.
George, 33, said that he considered turning down the head coach Steve Borthwick’s offer given his mother’s condition but she was determined he should accept it and play on. Jane died only seven weeks later, at the age of 68, and George has said that he will “play to make her proud” when he leads England in the Calcutta Cup match against Scotland on Saturday.
“It’s what my Mum would have wanted,” George said. “Wherever she is now she will be looking down telling everyone there that her son is the England captain. I know for a fact that meant a huge amount to her.
“I feel very privileged to do what I do and hopefully the boys will agree that I’ve been able to fulfil my role as captain and fulfil my role as a player in this team.
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“It’s not an ideal situation to be in but there was never any doubt in my mind that I wanted to be involved in this game. We’ve been going through a lot as a family for a long period. The deterioration she had was really fast.
“When I told my mum and dad about me being captain and I was saying I was not sure if it was the right thing or not given the circumstances, my mum was distraught. She was like, ‘You can’t not take this because of me’ and my dad has been very much the same way since her passing.
“She passed [away] last Wednesday, and last Thursday I went home and my dad was like, ‘Do you think you’ll make this training session? I think it’d be good for you to get back with the boys.’ ”
George’s father, Ian, brothers Jonathan and Gareth, and uncle Robbie will all be at Murrayfield to watch England play Scotland. “It’s just an amazing opportunity for my whole family to get together in a positive light in what has been a pretty tough few weeks,” George said. ��That has always been my motivation — making friends and family proud.
“It will probably be multiplied this weekend by quite a bit but when you get into the arena, when you step on to the field, everything that has happened away from it, it’s actually quite a nice feeling to be able to forget everything that has happened previously.
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“Of course I’m going to use [it as] motivation — I want to win for her and I want to win in her memory as much as I possibly can but I’m fully aware that Scotland aren’t going to allow us to do that.
“It would be an amazing story if we did [win], it would be an amazing situation for my family but, regardless of the result, I’m going out there to make her proud, I’m going out there to make the rest of my family in the stands proud too.
“The text I got from her before my first game [as captain] is something I will treasure forever. She said it was the proudest day of her life. Given what she was going through, to still be able to put a smile on her face is huge.”
George said he has been overwhelmed by the support he has had from his team-mates, Borthwick, the England coaches and support staff.
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His mother did not miss a match of his career — from school games and Saracens fixtures, to England and British & Irish Lions Tests — until the victories over Italy and Wales in this year’s Six Nations, as she was too ill to attend.
“She was always there, she never missed it,” George said. “We had quite a few heated debates and she was quite vocal when I first came into playing rugby, especially professionally. It was quite a difficult transition, you go from watching your son play at Haileybury School in front of 12 people to the following year I was playing at Vicarage Road for Saracens in front of 20,000 people and her volume level didn’t change.
“She was sitting in the family box with everyone else’s family around. She was a very proud woman, she was absolutely incredible with everything she did for me and my brothers. It is hard to put into words.
“Rugby was a massive part of her life, I think it has kept our family together in certain ways and it goes to show what an incredible sport this is, the power of sport. Until the day she died she was a diehard Saracens and England rugby fan. It is amazing to have been able to give her such an incredible life, travelling around the world following my games.
“In any break I would get from camp, I would be going to visit her and the first question she would ask me is, ‘How is Marcus Smith getting on?’
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“She sort of lost her voice towards the end, so conversations were difficult, but the few conversations we would have were largely around the team. That probably summed her up. We were able to have some pretty horrible conversations that no one ever wants to have but there were some amazing conversations I had with my mum towards the end. Those sort of things put everything into perspective.”
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George hopes he and his team can produce a performance to make his mother, and all England fans, proud.
“When I first became captain, I spoke a lot about showing how much it means to you to play for England and what an amazing impact you can have on people’s lives,” he said. “I have seen it first-hand. My mum was on her deathbed talking about the England rugby team and how proud she was of me being able to do what I do. That’s absolutely incredible. She will be with me in some capacity on Saturday and that means a huge amount to me.
“Being able to captain this team is without doubt the highlight of my career and she would have wanted me to throw myself into this.”
Scotland v England
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Six Nations, Murrayfield
Saturday, kick-off 4.45pm
TV BBC 1
