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Back in November 2024, England fly-half Ford looked disheartened at Allianz Stadium.

He was called upon from the bench to support the home side secure a memorable triumph versus the All Blacks, however was unable to score a crucial penalty and drop-goal as England fell short by two points.

After those expensive errors, Ford had to work hard to secure another chance to achieve success for England.

He saw just 25 minutes of action during this year's Six Nations but a string of strong showings, especially during the summer matches against Argentina and the USA while Fin Smith and Marcus Smith were away on Lions team responsibilities, returned him solidly among starting candidates.

The veteran player fully validated the manager's confidence through his selection versus New Zealand, but the Sale Sharks playmaker delivered a player-of-the-match performance to support England to a breakthrough triumph against the All Blacks in their own stadium since 2012.

The decisive instant occurred as Ford converted back-to-back drop-goals just before the break.

This assisted England overcome a 12-0 deficit to trail 12-11 at the break, prior to the coach's talented substitutes again delivered during the final period to support England to a decisive 33-19 win.

"You have to give credit to the veteran members in our team, notably George," the coach stated. "That period as he scored those crucial kicks, he controlled the match just incredibly.

"One year earlier I thought George entered and performed really well [facing the Kiwis].

"A attempt hit the upright and he had a pressured drop-kick, yet he performed excellently.

"He is a phenomenal leader, an outstanding athlete plus a better human being. We are privileged to include him on our team."

Drop-goals 'part of the strategy'

The Kiwis started quickly during the match, building a twelve-point advantage through scores from Leicester Fainga'anuku and Codie Taylor.

Following Ollie Lawrence's strong try, the fly-half's successive three-pointers resulted in the home side returned to the locker room with renewed energy.

"The difficult aspect during those periods is, when the scoreboard says 12-0, we must maintain to our plan and our convictions the optimal approach to compete is," Ford said.

"We worked our way back into the game and we recognized should we begin the second half well, as reserves joined, we would be in a good position.

"Although facing a quarter-hour remaining, we were positioned defending our goal line with a yellow card, thus we encountered obstacles there as well.

"I believe this illustrates elite competition requires - who can deal during those situations superiorly."

The two attempts happened within close succession as the fly-half who nailed three drop-kicks in a win versus Argentina during the 2023 World Cup, demonstrated his full century of caps experience.

Ford converted two drop-goals with Sale in a league contest played in challenging weather against Bath - this demonstrates a talent he has extensively practiced.

"The drop-kicks form part of our strategy," Ford continued.

"The coach is such an incredible coach that he is always reminding me, and appropriately because three points is valuable during any phase of the game."

Ford guided his team superbly around the field the entire match, making smart decisions - both to compete and in finding space in the opposition's territory.

His characteristic 'spiral bomb' further confused Beauden Barrett, who couldn't collect.

Following his start in England's win over Australia in early November, Ford relinquished the fly-half position to the younger Smith against Fiji the following week.

However the greatest challenge on paper this autumn was presented by the three-time world champions, and Ford reclaimed his starting role.

England, now on a run of 10 straight wins, meet Argentina on 23 November creating intrigue to discover if the manager opts with the alternative or persists with Ford.

Whatever choice occurs, Ford established two years away prior to global competition that significant amounts of rugby left for him.