George Ford: England fly-half agrees new Bath contract

George Ford kicked the winning conversion as Bath beat Wasps in the European Champions Cup on Sunday

England fly-half George Ford has signed a new deal with Premiership side Bath.

The 22-year-old, who moved to The Rec in 2013 from Leicester Tigers, has won 17 England caps and started their opening match at the 2015 World Cup before being left out for Owen Farrell.

"It sounds like a cliche, but it really was an easy decision to stay here," said Ford, whose father Mike is the club's head coach.

"I'm really looking forward to the next two years."

He added: "I feel like I've become a better player since joining.

"I always wanted to stay here, it's a great environment to be a part of. I'm very excited about the next couple of years, being part of this team and hopefully being successful at this club."

Ford, whose recent club form has attracted criticism from some quarters, kicked 10 points, including an injury-time conversion, to secure victory for Bath against Wasps in the European Champions Cup on Sunday.

Having made his international debut as a replacement during the 2014 Six Nations victory over Wales, he started his first match for England in last year's autumn international against Samoa.

Ford went on to cement his place as former head coach Stuart Lancaster's first-choice number 10 during the 2015 Six Nations, before starting the World Cup opener against Fiji.

However, he was then controversially dropped for the group games against Wales and Australia, which England lost to send them out of the tournament.

Ford now hopes his style of play will impress new England boss Eddie Jones, who was in charge of Japan for the World Cup.

"The way Japan played at the World Cup, they were pretty attacking in the way they moved the ball and challenged teams," said Ford. "We're not the biggest backline here [at Bath] and we like to do sort of the same thing.

"All we have got to do is focus on winning here, and hopefully off the back of that we'll get some good rewards."