When Jamie George sought his parents’ counsel on whether to accept the England captaincy, he received an immediate, emotional, overwhelming response.
George was offered the England captaincy on the very same January day that he found out his mum Jane had contracted lung cancer.
The Saracens stalwart spent the weekend talking with his family about whether he should, or even could, accept the Red Rose skipper’s role given his mum’s illness.
The conversation proved particularly brief: the mere notion of George turning down the Test captaincy left his mother “distraught”.
Jane George died on Wednesday last week, less than four days after being told her cancer was terminal.
Jamie George was with his mum at the end, then returned to training last Friday, after discussions with his dad.
Little more than a week after such a major family loss, George will now lead England into Saturday’s Calcutta Cup clash with Scotland at Murrayfield.
England would have allowed him to stand down from the contest, but George was having none of it – because neither would his mum.
So now he will lead England out in Edinburgh, on a mission to do his mum’s memory proud.
“Playing in this match is what my mum would have wanted,” said an emotional but remarkably candid George.
“Wherever she is now she will be looking down telling everyone that her son is the England captain.
“I know for a fact that meant a huge amount to her.
“Whenever I’ve played, I’ve always wanted to make my family proud. It’s been a huge driver for me. That won’t change this weekend – it will probably be enhanced.
“It will be emotional for me coming out. It will be the first game that she won’t be there. She wasn’t able to come to the first two games to watch, which has been tough in itself.
“I found out about her cancer diagnosis on the same day I found out I was going to be England captain, so that was a pretty mixed day.
“We’ve been going through a lot as a family for a long period. The deterioration she had was really fast.
“I found out on Sunday about the fact that she was terminal, and she passed away on Wednesday last week.”
George admitted the image of his mum lighting up about the England team and wanting to talk about his team-mates despite being in hospital will stay with him forever.
England will not lack for motivation this weekend, with head coach Steve Borthwick and George’s team-mates rallying round their captain.
“She was the biggest rugby fan on earth, she loved this team, loved watching me play and she never missed a game,” said George.
“The text I’ve 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, and given what she was going through to still be able to put a smile on her face is huge.
“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?’
“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.
“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.
“I have seen it first-hand: my mum was on her death bed 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.”
