England icon Matt Dawson has called for captain Owen Farrell to be dropped from the team for the next quarter-final against Fiji.
Farrell and Ford were both deployed against Samoa but the experiment was short-lived, now Dawson believes that only Ford should continue in the starting lineup.
He told the BBC: “They’ve broken up the midfield that worked well against Japan and Argentina but Steve Borthwick is so loyal to Owen Farrell that it felt inevitable. There’s a part of me that thinks they brought George Ford off because they’ll need him next week.
“I cannot believe that anybody in the coaching staff thinks that Farrell is a better 10 than George Ford right now. I’d find that quite concerning if that was the case, therefore I’m going down the line of they must have just wanted to bring him [Ford] off.
“Or there’s a chance they’re trying a combination of [Marcus] Smith at full-back, [Freddie] Steward on the wing, Farrell at 10, some bigger ball-carriers in midfield. But again, it’s this notion of trying things at a World Cup [which is a problem].”
