George Ford described Jonny May as an ‘unbelievable athlete’ following his teammate’s flying finish against Italy on Saturday – and now wants to see more of England’s dangerous backline in action.
May’s thrilling score came at a vital time for the hosts in their Round 2 clash at Twickenham, giving the Red Rose a comfortable cushion going into the break.
Ford admitted he wasn’t surprised to see May take off as he did and was delighted to see the Gloucester wing’s training pay dividends.
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“He’s got a knack of scoring tries and he loves scoring tries, so he’ll do everything he can to score tries in a variety of ways,” said the fly-half.
“What a finish it was, fair play to him. He’s unbelievably athletic – he looks after himself and gives himself opportunities like that because of the athlete he is and the hard work he puts in.
“It’s brilliant to know you have guys who can finish like that.”
May’s was one of six tries England scored against the Azzurri as the hosts looked to play a more expansive game following their Calcutta Cup defeat against Scotland.
Ford, brought in for his first start of the year on Saturday, was pleased by the improvement but has backed his side to improve further as the Championship goes on.
The Leicester Tigers star hopes exciting backs like May will be at the heart of that progress, with England needing their leading lights to be in top form for the trip to face an unbeaten Wales side in a fortnight.
Press Conference: Eddie Jones and Owen Farrell reflect on win over Italy
“We had a good chat in the week, as backs especially, about getting some life in us, demanding the ball and putting Anthony (Watson), Sladey (Henry Slade) and Jonny (May) in space to do what they do,” Ford said.
“They are the best in the world at doing that so why would we not use it? We want to get our most dangerous players on the ball so they can do what they do.
“We think we left a few points out there on Saturday but there’s some great things to review when we come back into camp on Thursday.
“As players, we are always massively excited about Wales away. It’s a challenging game, of course it is, but we’ll prepare as well as we can and try and attack that game to get a good result.”
