This week England Rugby returned to the familiar surroundings of Pennyhill Park to continue their progression towards the impending Rugby World Cup and according to their Head Coach they have kicked on hugely since their opening three weeks in Surrey.
The purpose of heading to Denver was provide the players with a new set of surroundings, take them outside of the World Cup bubble and to push them physically at altitude. For England's Senior Management the camp delivered on all fronts and has provided them much food for thought going into the next cut in selection as Stuart shared;
"There were definitely some players that performed very well, there were very few that didn’t to be honest, so the decisions are getting harder and not easier because everyone is turning up and getting stuck in."
"It [Denver] was a good balance, it wasn’t just a case of pure physical endurance training, there was lots of rugby in there and we really got stuck into the rugby in the second week. When you combine rugby with physical conditioning you can really take the players to places that they found really difficult to deal with. That is what we needed, one it gives you the base [fitness] and two it gives you those who can and who can’t."
Following this Friday's selection cut, when around 8 or 9 players are set to leave camp, the focus shifts to the Warm Up fixtures and the one hundredth Crunch at Twickenham Stadium. The clear message from Stuart is that these fixtures are a vital part of his decision making and he was very open regarding his philosophy for them;
Following this Friday's selection cut, when around 8 or 9 players are set to leave camp, the focus shifts to the Warm Up fixtures and the one hundredth Crunch at Twickenham Stadium. The clear message from Stuart is that these fixtures are a vital part of his decision making and he was very open regarding his philosophy for them;
"We want to look at some options during the first game where we have got some decisions to make from a selection point of view. I think it will be fair to say that in the first game there are some areas where we will look at options which will help inform our decision so we will create some opportunities but the majority of the side that will play in the first game are likely to be involved in the World Cup 31 man squad. So, we see it being a strong team playing in the first game against France.""Then it will probably be, I wouldn’t say an entirely different team, but a big change going into the second France game and then we will name the 31 man squad and we will go with what we consider to be our number one team for the Ireland game.”
During the course of the next month I expect individuals to surprise us, on Tuesday Stuart shared that Jonny May has been the 'stand out' winger in camp and in all honesty I'm not sure that too many of us would have predicted that? The fact remains that the depth of England's talent is vast and as the World Cup becomes closer selection decisions will come down to the finest of margins. Stuart is well aware that the roads towards major tournaments aren't ever smooth ones and is focused on handling these difficult conversations in the right manner for individuals may be later on needed at a moments notice.
Now, the forthcoming fixtures cannot come soon enough, for the players they just want a shot to be able to show what they can do on a pitch and from a management perspective they have questions about individuals that can only be answered by seeing how they far in test conditions against formidable, and in France's case, unpredictable opposition.
