Over the past few years
Twickenham Stadium has become very used to the distinct figure of Chris Robshaw
running out of the tunnel first and leading England on match days. The
captaincy is a position that Robshaw has grown into, he has learned on the job
and is certain to lead England during the sternest test of resilience yet, a
home Rugby World Cup. However on Saturday night, for the 100th Crunch against France, there will be another man calling the shots, Tom Wood.
The choice of Wood to lead out
this England side is a mark of Lancaster’s continued respect for Northampton
Saint and it is a role that Wood has performed before, although never on home
soil. The back rower personifies the
word professionalism and is a man with many years of professional
experience however he openly admits, like others, that this pre-season camp has
been the most precise and well delivered of them all. We have all heard the
descriptions of England’s hard graft with the words gruelling and brutal coming
up time and time again and earlier this week Tom provided more insight into their
schedule;
"We tend to do two really hard days on and I tell you what you are
physically empty by a Tuesday afternoon, I’m good for nothing. I go home and it
is a waste of time because I can hardly speak, but you rest, you get your recovery
in, you get down the pool, do your stretching, get your food in and then you
come back in Thursday morning ready to go again."
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To reach new heights, in any
physical activity you have to approach breaking point and then smash straight through it. It is a ruthless pursuit as Tom elaborated more on;
“You are almost delirious [at breaking point], it almost stops hurting
because it can get any worse and you can’t physically see how it can get any
worse. You almost go onto autopilot and one thing I tell myself is just one
foot in front of the other, it doesn’t matter just keep running and do not drop
out at all costs. That is the one thing that you can’t afford to do is ever
drop out, so you just have to get one foot in front of the other.”
With such intense sessions in the
bag Wood knows that in this Crunch England won’t be left wanting when it
comes to fitness and playing at tempo. Andy Farrell was clear yesterday after the team run that England would look to dictate the pace & set the tempo with a huge focus on defensive solidity. In attack and defence individuals must execute their
roles with precision and in doing so find the moments to shine, it is a tough
balance to deliver with a danger that those in question try a little bit too
hard however earlier in the week Lancaster revealed that they’d already
experienced when it goes wrong;
“We had a good experience of that a couple of weeks ago in training
where we moved away from the shape that we’d been practising because people
were desperate to get their hands on the ball to prove a point, and I think
there was a lesson learned in that particular training session where we talked
about it afterwards. I’d rather it happened two weeks ago in training than on
Saturday! I’m confident the players will stick to their rules within the team
and everyone should get their opportunity.”
This fixture, by all intents
and purposes, is a warm up and a place for the coaches to create opportunities for players and have their questions answered. We all know that a loss won’t stop England in their tracks or dampen their chances
of an opening victory against Fiji however maintaining home advantage remains critical as Wood is well aware;
“It would undermine us slightly to say that we have got an advantage
playing at Twickenham in front of our fans if we had gone on and lost warm up
games. It is conceivable, it could happen, and like I say it won’t undermine
our preparation or our ability to perform at the World Cup but it is not
something that we are planning on doing. We are confident that we can win, we
know that we are going to be up against a very good French team, they’ll be
organised, we saw how dangerous they were in that last game of the 6 Nations
when they get the ball in the wide channels they’re a huge threat but at home
we are always confident."
