The Six Nations Championship is bubbling away nicely and will come to the boil over the final two weekends as the tournament reaches a crescendo, hopefully with a little bit of razzmatazz and excitement to mark the denouement.
The participants still have plenty to play for, as Ireland chase a championship and Grand Slam, Scotland and England still in with a shout of winning the tournament, while the Triple Crown might also be up for grabs on that final weekend.
France stumbled right out of the gate and have yet to recover while Italy should have celebrated Gonzalo Quesada’s first year in charge with a statement win last time out. For the second season in succession Netflix, with limited access and budget compared to other projects, have tried to capture the drama.
There is still an air of privacy to rugby players inside and outside the team environment that will be hard for the television cameras to penetrate. My experience of successful teams is that interpersonal vulnerability in that quest for glory, for me, does not belong on camera for general public consumption.
Rugby still relies on traditional values like individual responsibility and honesty, as well as emotion and sacrifice. Players don’t do it just for the money, which might be the case in other professional sports. The lifestyle is good, but I have yet to meet a rugby player that doesn’t have to work post playing.
The docu-series faces a dilemma in that they want to capture the essence of what makes a Six Nations environment special but for most players who have worked hard to be part of the tournament, there is a reluctance to strip bare their emotions away from the match environment. Perhaps the notion of giving too much access leads to a fear it may lessen what makes it special.
How Netflix manages the art of storytelling this week in advance of Ireland’s visit to Twickenham might be interesting down the line when context in the pregame hoopla and build-up is shaped in narrative by the outcome.
The Lawrence Dallaglio interview
England gambled in installing Steve Borthwick as head coach 15 months out from a World Cup and, with a 58 per cent win ratio, the clamour for a better return is getting louder of late.
There have been notable moments, especially when they almost sneaked past the eventual champions South Africa at the World Cup when the horrendous weather conditions levelled the playing field.
Heart was a currency that mattered in Paris, and the English players showed that in spades. South Africa’s technical proficiency at the set piece helped them to squeeze out the win.
England have been less than convincing in their opening two matches of the Six Nations, two hard fought wins, but a recent loss to Scotland was the most glaring example of a team in transition.
It should really not be the case 18 matches into a coach’s tenure. There is a new defence system under Felix Jones. The mistakes made show players that are not comfortable with the system and/or hamstrung by set-piece foundations not solid or good enough to deploy a high defensive line.
As the old saying goes, ‘you have to earn the right to go around a team’. This holds true in defence too; you have to earn the right to go high past the ball. Jones is new to the role and will be afforded time to embed or indeed evolve the system to suit the players.
A bigger concern for England is the stagnation of their attack which has shown almost no discernible growth in Borthwick’s reign. The English Premiership is littered with fine individual talent, and even with the reduced number of teams, Northampton Saints, Harlequins and the Exeter Chiefs have been playing an attractive, high-tempo brand of rugby.
This doesn’t seem to be translating to the national system. A simple example was in the final quarter against Scotland when, nine points down, England slowed at least two rucks to 16 seconds to box-kick.
One sure fire way to stifle a player’s attacking instinct is to smother them in systems and process, and from the outside that looks to be the case. Attacking principles built on statistics are completely at odds with how the game is being played at the moment. The focus seems to be more about building a shape or a system rather than an opportunity.
I don’t believe England can or will fix this in the short time they have between the Scottish loss and facing Ireland at home in Twickenham. A simple message will have been posted under each player’s door on the first night in the team hotel; we don’t lose, at any cost.
The technical template will be based on a brutally simple game plan, low on errors, high on passion. They will have shown examples of Welsh defensive sets that managed to stifle the Irish attack, and after that the challenge will be to score points quickly and often. England may draw down on the memory of the emotional and physical pitch they managed against the Springboks.
When players embrace individual responsibility, openly accept and acknowledge a below-par display as Ireland did after Wales, it can be a very powerful galvanising tool.
My wife read me a passage she came across about Andy Farrell, where Brendan Venter knew within minutes of meeting him that he was going to be an excellent coach. He described the way Farrell treats his wife and the way he understands people.
The entire Irish coaching staff have played rugby at the highest level, and all of them have been flat in a match; for me that ability to be empathetic with your players is unique. It also comes from a position of trust and respect. I would be willing to wager there was an intensity to training that was absent in the build up to the Welsh match.
Ireland have a hard-earned self-belief and they will know that, when they focus on themselves and get it right, not many teams can live with them. England will want to tap into the emotion of the game, try to get the crowd on their side and make it as hostile an environment as possible.
Ireland’s opportunity is more subtle; there will be doubt in English minds and the best teams find a way to get that to manifest on a pitch. Saturday’s visitors to Twickenham will look to expose that early on with wave after wave of ruthless attacks.
There are many layers to this match aside from the historic rivalry. Ireland will want a statement performance after the Welsh game and English backs are to the wall which adds an unknown element to the equation. Saturday’s winners get to tell the story from their perspective to Netflix and beyond.
