Steve Borthwick has been told to build his England forward pack around Leicester Tigers’ old school hard man George Martin, whose physical presence echoes that of 2003 World Cup winning captain Martin Johnson.

That’s the view of Lawrence Dallaglio, who won every major honour in rugby during his glittering career with England and Wasps.

Borthwick has been told to make Martin his central player in the packGetty

The England legend is convinced Martin is going to be a star at Test level and his physicality during the 23-22 win over Ireland in the 2024 Six Nations Championship showed the impact the Leicester youngster can have on the sport.

England defeated Ireland, now ranked World No1, at Twickenham in a pulsating game and Dallaglio exclusively told talkSPORT: “When England played against Ireland in last year’s Six Nations, that to me was the sort of ferocity that I hadn’t seen from England for a very long time. 

“They were motivated because they had been humiliated the week before against Scotland and the transformation was astonishing to cause the upset of all upsets, and now, I think this England team have set the level and their standards, and George Martin has very much been a part of that – a guy at the top of the benchmark.

“Martin was the flagbearer for that performance, he was one of the two or three outstanding performances on the field.

“Some of the others caught the headlines but he underpinned what was so good about England’s performance – what they did at the breakdown. With that performance alone, if he was able to produce that quality on a regular basis then he is almost the player that Steve Borthwick builds his England team around in the pack.”

The impact 23-year-old Martin has made for England after just 15 tests has drawn comparisons with another Leicester hard man, Martin Johnson, the man who lifted the 2003 Rugby World Cup after beating the Wallabies in the final.

Since Johnson’s retirement, England have lacked an enforcer, a player who can dominate the opposition through his physical presence on the pitch. In the 2023 Rugby World Cup semi final, Martin folded Franco Mostert, the Springbok lock, with a colossal hit and it signalled his arrival at the top of the sport.

Dallaglio added: “When you meet Martin you’re struck by how big he is and how he is constructed, he’s very much in my opinion a throwback to one of those older, tougher Leicester Tigers forwards.

“He’s 6ft 6in which is not unusual for a modern day second row and he is about 19 stone, which again isn’t unusual for a second row – he’s constructed out of something quite thick, a bit like Will Skelton (giant Wallaby lock), when you see him, you’re struck by the density of him and I think that’s the same with Martin.

Martin helped England upset Ireland at TwickenhamGetty

“There’s no doubt that he has the potential to go on and have the most incredible career given what he’s done already. He’s come through the system at Leicester having arrived at rugby fairly late but he’s exactly the sort of player England head coach Steve Borthwick needs in his team and England need.

“I was worried a couple of years ago when I was watching the International game – you looked at the three best teams at the time who were France, South Africa and Ireland, and certainly with South Africa and France, you recognised the size and ferocity of their forwards was allowing them to play the game in a very different way, and I was worried that England were lacking that size of forward.

“I am very impressed with Martin so far, he’s talks about the game in a way that I really like, he enjoys the physical side of the game, he relishes it, he’s not afraid to discuss it when they seem to be the wrong things to say at the moment with optics around physicality in rugby.

“But you can’t win a game of rugby without that ferocity and that excitement to hit the breakdown legally. He looks like a guy who is made to play rugby, he’s a real handful. 

“There’s been lots of articles written about Handre Pollard telling his South African team mates before the World Cup semi-final that Martin is the real deal, and they’ve got some pretty handy second rows of their own.

Martin is a man mountain at 6ft6inGetty

“For Pollard to say that this guy hits like a South African, and I don’t think anyone believed him until he put that shot in [on Mostert]. Courtney Lawes made a career out of levelling players, but when you put the physics behind George Martin, if he hits someone, he is going to hurt them, he’s an enormous guy.

“He relishes that confrontation and has a thirst for learning and improving. I read articles about when he got injured for a couple of months, he said ‘give me a chance to go away and come back a better player’, and I think that’s a really refreshing attitude to have. Leicester got heavily beaten by La Rochelle, he (Martin) was in the changing room after the game wanting to understand how Will Skelton brings that ferocity to the breakdown.”

So, how high is the ceiling for Martin? Dallaglio, a three-time British and Irish Lion, expects the Leicester lock to be on the plane to Australia as part of the Lions squad to take on the Wallabies next year.

He explained: “If you’re a starter in the England second row and you’re beating a team as good as Ireland, I think that tells you everything you need to know [about Martin’s Lions chances]. Ireland are without doubt one of the best teams in the world and he came off that field having done a proper demolition job on them. 

“A lot will be about proving it to everyone in the upcoming internationals. If you beat your opponent and end up being one of the two or three players who are talked about after the game, as Martin was against Ireland, then you’re going to be on the plane.”