A Short Reflection - England Rugby

As mentioned on Twitter the morning commute is so much better following an England win… now my commute is a little longer than most; 55 miles to be exact, and today it was almost enjoyable. The drive provided me with the opportunity to reflect on England's achievement yesterday and I wanted to share a few thoughts with you, that weren’t part of the Out On The Full View From Twickenham.   

For 80 minutes on that hallowed Twickenham turf England took their game to another level, they built on their significant win over Ireland and took yet another step towards greatness. Stuart Lancaster said in his post-match press conference that one of his objectives is to "try to remove the fear of failure” so his men can go out and really play. Pleasingly, that is exactly what we saw out there on the pitch; 15 extremely talented England players following their natural instincts as well as brilliantly executing their rehearsed plays. 

Another interesting insight from the coaching team and another objective that they have given their squad is to ensure that they “always play at an intensity that other teams can't play at”. This is clearly a very simple objective but in fact it is one that England hadn't managed to achieve on a number of occasions in previous years and matches. Chris Robshaw used to be the stand out man in terms of intensity, occasionally manifesting himself as a ‘one man crusade’ against the opposition however now there are 14 other workhorses on the pitch. Looking back at the great England rugby squads of recent years, brutal intensity was a common feature in every single one of them and indeed a factor that lead them to squash some of the most dangerous teams out there. 

England Selfie (@DylanHartley)

Now I wish to comment on something that did not happen on the field but in my eyes is extremely important and noteworthy. I am of course talking about the best selfie that England Rugby had ever seen. It goes without saying that the marketing department at the RFU will be thinking that all their Christmases have come at once however let’s park that for a second and focus on the more important messages that this winning selfie sends out. The phrase a picture paints a thousand words is a cliché however in this particular case it is absolutely spot on. This photo says so much about the spirit of this current England team, there is nothing force or contrived about England at the moment... they have a genuine unity and togetherness within the squad and it is having a huge impact on the pitch. I expect that Stuart Lancaster and his team will take a small moment to look at the picture and be extremely proud of what they themselves have to help create such a strong and unified team. When Stuart picked up the reigns no such selfie would ever have been taken, over the past few years this squad has grown together, they have supported each other through some extremely dark times and are developing into a huge force to be reckoned with.

Today, with one RBS 6 Nations match left England are stronger than ever, the pride in the jersey is back, the rugby is stronger than ever before and it couldn't be happening at a better time.  

View the Out On The Full Images from HQ Here