England’s players have been urged to jettison the mental baggage of heavy recent club defeats and start afresh when the Six Nations kicks off next week. The majority of the squad have endured at least one disappointing result since Christmas but the management hope it will intensify their collective desire to transform England’s fortunes over the next seven weeks.
While Leicester’s 80-12 drubbing in Toulouse and Saracens’ unscheduled home loss to a second-string Castres side last weekend have cast an inevitable shadow over England’s warm weather training camp on the Costa Brava, it has at least awoken Steve Borthwick’s players and coaches to the urgent need to raise their level if they are to enjoy a more productive Six Nations campaign.
The former Great Britain rugby legend Kevin Sinfield also believes it could galvanise the squad and help them surprise people when they face Ireland in Dublin on Saturday week. “You think the best team on paper will win but it doesn’t always work out like that,” stressed Sinfield, England’s skills and kicking coach. “We all love the fact an underdog can come back and prove people wrong. Those who have a cause or who have had to face some adversity often come out swinging and do some remarkable things.
“If you look at the last three weeks the vast majority of our players have had a pretty hefty score put on them at some stage. It’s understandable that when you come in after a defeat like that you’re massively humbled. That’s the great thing about sport. You think you’re riding high and you suddenly get your legs taken from under you.
Andy Farrell is set to appoint David Nucifora and Aled Walters to his management team for the British and Irish Lions' tour to Australia.
Nucifora, the current Scotland and former Ireland performance director, and Ireland's head of athletic performance Walters have been lined up for roles on this summer's visit down under, the PA news agency understands.
The highly-rated Walters was expected to be involved in the 10-fixture itinerary that opens against Argentina in Dublin on 20 June having stepped down from his post with England last year to join Farrell's Ireland backroom staff.
But Nucifora's impending appointment by the Lions comes as a surprise, even given his close five-year working relationship with Farrell when he was responsible for performance in Irish rugby from 2014-24.
The Australian has intricate knowledge of the Wallabies head coach, Joe Schmidt, from when the Kiwi was in charge of Ireland until 2019 and has also coached down under.
Nucifora's duties on tour are expected to centre around responsibility for performance staff. PA Media
“What I would say is that the group have come together really well despite some difficulties that may have been there for some of them. Like anything in life when we have challenges and issues we have to work through them. But the best way to do that is to get out there and front it up. The fact we’re away means some of the noise is lost for them and they can focus on something completely different.”
Aside from Alex Mitchell and his Northampton teammate Ollie Sleightholme, everyone else has been able to train and Sinfield hinted that the Leicester forward Ollie Chessum, who missed the Autumn Nations Series because of a knee injury, was in contention to play a prominent role against Ireland. “He’s got a great deal of credit in the bank,” said Sinfield. “Chez is a top player and the lads respect him. He’s really important to us.”
As Sinfield also stressed, however, England will have to up their game significantly. “We need to be better in all areas. Clearly we’re not happy with being close and losing by a score. We’ve got to improve and we’ve got to win some Test matches. We have to be good at all aspects of the game because there are a lot of good teams out there.”
