Let’s go back to 2013. Wales have just lost the first match of the Six Nations to Ireland. At home. And at one stage we were 30-3 down, before coming back to 30-22. So much for our defence of the title that we had won with a grand slam the previous year. To say we were deflated would be the biggest of understatements.
So we were a worried group of players coming down for breakfast on the Monday morning. On the whiteboard in the team room Warren Gatland had written, “NCE 10am.” That was all, nothing else.
This was unusual. Normally we do a debrief in the team room before any physical stuff. So now we were even more worried. NCE is the National Centre of Excellence, in other words the training barn away from the Vale hotel where the team stays. This looked as if it was going to be some sort of physical punishment for what had happened at the weekend.
Warburton struggles to keep his chin up during Wales’s 30-22 defeat by Ireland in 2013
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We all walked up to the barn and one of the strength and conditioning coaches was waiting in the foyer, and he said: “Straight to the gym, lads.” This was not looking good. We were like a group of naughty schoolboys. We went to the gym and found Gatland there.
But this was all very different. The lights had been dimmed and in the middle of the gym was a DJ with her decks ready and the disco lights beginning to flash.
“Right, let’s forget about that loss,” Gatland said. “This is going to be a beach weights session just to pick the mood back up. You can take your tops off if you want.”
A 30-3 win over England followed Gatland’s disco-themed intervention
HUW EVANS
Suddenly the mood was lifted. Everyone was shouting and high-fiving, and off we went for an hour’s work with the music blaring and the place just bouncing. At one stage I remember looking over during a particularly rousing song and seeing Gatland standing on one of the weights benches punching his fist in the air to the beat. It was incredible. It was brilliant man-management from Gatland.
By the time we got back to the team room, as captain I was saying to the players: “Grand slams are rare. Not everyone wins the championship with a grand slam. This is still on. Just because we have lost one game does not mean we cannot win the title.” And it didn’t. We went on to have a very happy campaign that culminated in the 30-3 victory over England in Cardiff, denying them a grand slam as we won the championship.
Yes, of course bonus points (introduced in 2017) now have a significant say, but I tell this story because this is what England must be telling themselves after the defeat at Murrayfield last weekend. The immediate message after that game must be: “It is still on.”
The galling defeat by Scotland was a harsh reality check for Ben Earl and his team-mates as their winning streak went up in smoke
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I genuinely think that it would be extremely naive for anyone to say that the championship is now out of England’s reach. As a leader you need to be positive at all times. When I was Wales captain I developed a leadership compass with the psychologist Andy McCann consisting of the four Ps — positive, professional, performance and people. I am a naturally positive person. Some might say that I am sometimes too positive about England in these columns, but that is because I can see the potential and talent there. When I say they can be World Cup contenders I genuinely believe that, and that is what their leaders must be saying now.
Of course the result at Murrayfield was a surprise. I didn’t actually watch it live as I was at Cardiff City with my son, but on the way out we walked past a pub and I could see the game was on the television inside. I pressed my head against the window and saw that Scotland were winning and thought: “Oh my God!’ But then I also thought: “That’s the Six Nations, there are always results that can surprise and baffle you. It is why it’s such a fantastic tournament.”
Having watched the game now in detail you really do have to give credit to Scotland. They do have this knack with England, but they completely nullified the visiting team’s physical threat. Rugby is such a simple game really. Wales got dominated physically by England in the first round, but Scotland then muscled up so well against England that they just took away all their go-forward.
I just had not seen that coming, having watched the likes of Ellis Genge and Tommy Freeman carrying against Wales. I just did not think Scotland would be able to cope with it. But they did. And some.
It reminded me of when the British & Irish Lions toured New Zealand in 2017 and Gatland asked us: “Where do you think the All Blacks will come at us?” Most of us replied that we thought they would come at us wide and fast because that was their strength. But Gatland said: “No, they will come at us first where they think we are strong. That is their mentality because they know if they can do that, we will have nowhere to turn.”
I suspect that was Gregor Townsend’s thinking with Scotland. They went at England’s strength immediately — the gainline and the aerial game — and though England did have scrum dominance, they had little else.
Borthwick’s side will have been dealt a psychological blow after Scotland successfully went after their aerial game
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Scotland were smart as well. They exposed England out wide and punished them mercilessly when they were down to 14 men, with the Matt Fagerson charge-down of George Ford’s attempted drop-goal a real momentum killer for England. Scotland had a plan to expose Freeman’s inexperience at No13 and that came off superbly for Jamie Ritchie’s try, which began with Finn Russell rounding Freeman after he had made the wrong read. You could see the delight on Townsend’s face up in the coaches’ box after that, as if it had been a plan that had come together.
I like the changes that Steve Borthwick has made for Ireland. Last weekend Sam Underhill and Guy Pepper just did not have the physical dominance they usually have. I thought Henry Pollock was excellent when he came off the bench, so he deserves a chance to start, and everyone should know by now how much I rate Tom Curry, so starting with him too should give Underhill and Pepper the jolt to come off the bench with real venom.
Freeman back on the wing makes sense, as Tom Roebuck struggled aerially and made one particularly poor defensive read when biting in on Russell as the fifth defender. One pass had taken out five defenders.
Arundell, right, avoided a suspension in the wake of his red card and is being backed to respond positively
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I’m glad that Borthwick has stuck with Henry Arundell, though. It would have been the obvious decision to drop him after his red card, but I am reminded of a business podcast I was listening to recently, where someone had made a huge mistake and the boss was asked if he was going to fire him.
“Why would I?” he answered. “He’s just cost me £300,000. He won’t be doing that again!”
Borthwick knows that Arundell has an unusually high ceiling as a player and he is backing him, just as he must back his players to believe they can still win the championship.
England v Ireland
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