George Martin brings the raw physicality England need

Industrious and combative, George Martin has already amassed close to 560 tackles for Leicester Tigers in top-level matches since breaking into the first-team three years ago. With that in mind, it might seem curious to pick out two defensive interventions from a growing body of work; not least because they were reasonably inconsequential to the game in question.

But these scything tackles, both of them on Nathan Hughes in the space of eight minutes against Bristol Bears back in June 2021, encapsulated a blend of tenacity and technical acumen that is already familiar to Leicester supporters; and will surely become more widely renowned soon enough.

Twice in a short period, Bristol sent Hughes, a hefty carrier, down Martin’s channel from line-outs on the edge of their own 22. Each time, once by his opponent’s right shoulder…

…and once with the left…

Hughes was whacked backwards by copybook tackles.

COVID regulations restricted the Welford Road attendance to 6,400 that day, which made a pair of resounding thwacks more palpable via the microphone of referee Ian Tempest. Spectators and Tigers teammates, were noticeably roused by Martin’s actions too. Importantly, though, tone-setting defence and ‘stopping power’ – that most valuable commodity in gain-line battles – is just one reason why his steady rise could be about to accelerate.

“He’s always wanted to belt people in D [defence] and make big shots,” said Dan Cole of Martin, 14 years the tighthead prop’s junior, last week. “This year, especially, he’s brought his ball-carrying on, his ability to ball play. I think he’s always been able to do it but his game has taken off with the impact he’s made.”

Opta’s statistics reflect this impressive development. Martin has accrued 100 carries for Leicester this season across 15 appearances in the Premiership and Champions Cup, averaging a shade over three metres per carry. That is no mean feat amid the heavy traffic of tight exchanges, and up from an average of 1.5 metres per carry during the 2021-22 campaign. Footwork, both before contact and through it, has been a common theme.

For one particular charge at Kingsholm, Martin had stationed himself at first-receiver with Leicester working in-field from the touchline following a Gloucester box-kick. The ruck was slow. The hosts might have been confident of suffocating and stifling an embryonic attack:

Then Martin gathered Ben Youngs’ pass. A shimmy unbalanced Jordy Reid before Martin bowled over the Gloucester back-rower, causing Ben Kay to emit an involuntary noise in the commentary box. The 30-metre run showcased eye-popping dynamism and poise on the ball; even if he might have linked up with a supporting Jasper Wiese in open space:

There do not seem to be any hard feelings lingering.

“George is still so young and I honestly think he can be a world-class player,” Wiese said on Tuesday in the build-up to Friday’s fascinating Champions Cup quarter-final against Leinster in Dublin. “The improvements he’s made over the past few weeks have been immense.”

“I’ve seen George come right through,” added Tommy Reffell, the Leicester and Wales openside flanker. “He’s a mountain of a man, and a very smart player. He’s a very big-hitter. He’ll carry, he’ll hit rucks. There’s a number of lads who have come through the academy over the years. George is right there with the very best of them.”

Another area that is gradually being refined is Martin’s prominence in the line-out. Last season, he hauled in 28 throws in 21 games. This term, he has already claimed 26 and is a nimble lifter. More matches at lock, where the 21-year-old progressed through the age-grades to captain club and country Under-18 sides, will be a major reason for this. In one of his valedictory press calls as head coach of Leicester, Steve Borthwick was asked about Martin. The praise was effusive, prolonged and coloured by a significant comparison.

“When I arrived here, he was almost straight out of school; 18 or 19 years old,” said Borthwick, who had handed a Premiership debut to Martin in his second match as Tigers head coach and watched the youngster complete 25 tackles.

“In that time, he’s accelerated quickly, been capped by England, had a couple of injuries and then been disappointed not to be picked by England. He’s had highs and lows and he’s grown enormously.

“His greatest strength as a player is that, defensively, there are not many players who hit in the tackle like him. You have some people around the league in that position like Courtney Lawes. George is up there with that kind of player and we’ve seen growth in his game in terms of his ball-carrying.

“I think what’ll happen is that he will have the versatility to be able to play second-row or six. I think he’ll be very good there. He’s 121 kilograms and 6ft 6in. He’s easily big enough to be a second-row at the very top level.”

The parallel with Lawes’ imposing, aggressive defence is obviously punchy, yet Borthwick is not prone to over-inflating egos. One evident similarity between the centurion and one-cap Martin is how discernible power comes from excellent technique. Despite huge appetite and output, as well as his height, Martin has conceded a single high tackle penalty for Leicester across 52 matches in league and European competition.

Sceptics of the modern-day hybrid forward – of which Lawes is a fine example – may groan at the mention of versatility, but Cole has spoken highly of Martin’s scrummaging and mauling. At around 121kg, or just over 19st, Martin is heavier than Maro Itoje, Ollie Chessum and even David Ribbans to name three contenders for England. In last Friday’s gritty, 16-6 victory over Edinburgh in the round of 16, Martin was behind Cole and Joe Heyes on the tighthead side; a sign of set-piece strength:

Ballast at lock is something that Borthwick might be keen to tap into as he bids to build a balanced England pack. Joe Launchbury, at close to 126kg, is understood to be in the mix for a World Cup return. In the long- and medium-term, and maybe before that, Martin is a potential solution. He was called into camp before the Six Nations finale against Ireland, with Nick Isiekwe ultimately handed the bench role behind Itoje and Ribbans.

Two years previously at the same venue, Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, Martin was promoted by Eddie Jones and made an unlikely Test bow. Still a teenager, he joined utter chaos but managed a couple of positive contributions over a 16-minute cameo including a clattering tackle on Robbie Henshaw. In the aftermath, England’s in-house video documentary series published prolonged footage of Martin working with Eddie Jones on his close-quarter carrying. At one stage, Joe Marchant was used as a defender and held up his far greener colleague. The experience will have yielded tough yet beneficial lessons, as Borthwick suggested.

For what will rank as one of the biggest matches of his career, Martin heads back to the Aviva Stadium again. Leicester have been defied their coaching exodus and are on a resurgent, season-saving sequence of six straight wins. That said, as an idea of the task facing them, they are 17-point underdogs with the bookmakers. There are a few England players, however, poignantly Freddie Steward as well as Jack van Poortvliet, who will be burning to produce performances that allow Tigers to trouble their hosts. Reffell and Wiese have big parts to play as well.

Martin, who came off the bench in last season’s quarter-final meeting between the same teams that Leinster won 23-14, has the traits to hold up what some have predicted to be a procession for Leo Cullen’s blue juggernaut. Leicester will need to slow their opponents’ trademark phase-play with disruptive defence. They will need to flex set-piece muscle and take every chance to cause what would be an almighty upset. Martin, doubtlessly, will be at the heart of those critical battles. A head-to-head with the explosive Ryan Baird, another Swiss Army knife of a back-five forward and a burgeoning star of the Ireland set-up, would be delicious.

Indeed, stopping Leinster looks daunting. Should his side do so, Martin will almost certainly have put more on notice of a bright future with both Tigers and England.