I still remember my first game as England captain, which was against John Eales’ famous Australia side.
That was followed up by Tests against New Zealand, South Africa and then New Zealand again. At the time it felt like quite a daunting prospect — a bit like doing further maths!
It was very exciting, though, and we ended up with two draws and two defeats. I was very proud to captain England and Tom Curry will be feeling the same ahead of tomorrow’s Six Nations opener against Scotland.
Tom has been involved in the squad for a long time. He has played in big games — a World Cup Final — and I am sure he will take the captaincy in his stride. He’s an incredibly determined, competitive young man and he’ll want to lead a winning England team.
That, however, is not something England have done for a while against Scotland. The Scots ambushed England last year at Twickenham and Tom will want to make amends, put things right and remember his first day as captain of England as a winner.
That will be his focus. You can be ambushed once, but not twice.
I have always made my feelings very clear: I am a massive Owen Farrell fan. He is a superb player and leader, and his record speaks for itself.
England will miss not having Farrell at Murrayfield, but I have also always been an advocate of giving the captaincy to one of the forwards. Courtney Lawes did a fantastic job in the autumn and now Tom gets that opportunity.
Leadership will be really important for England, not just in this game, but moving forward. One of the hallmarks of a strong team, certainly the side I played in, is that we had a lot of options in terms of leadership. We had a lot of guys who had captained at club and international level.
Eddie Jones and England are acutely aware they need to develop that leadership group as they move forward, so Tom is a great appointment.
He just throws himself into everything. He’s full on. He will lead by example and by doing what most players aim to do when they are captain; try to be one of the best players in the world in their position. Tom has been striving to do that for a long time now and he came out of the 2019 World Cup with huge credit, having gone toe to toe with some of the best sevens in the game.
He has become a world-class openside since then. He has filled in at No8 when needed to, but I am sure he feels more comfortable playing seven tomorrow.
Tom will continue on that road of establishing himself as one of the best flankers in the world, and being captain might help him with the referee on occasion as well. All good sevens need the rub of the green and being captain might help him get it more often than not.
Tom will rightly be feeling immensely proud and so he should do, it’s a great honour, but he will quickly focus on the fact England need to get off to a good start.
This game is so, so important for England’s campaign because if they win, they’ll move forward with confidence and belief.
If they lose, which is very much a possibility given the quality of that Scotland team, then the pressure starts to really build, and we saw what happened last year.
It has not been the ideal preparation for England ahead of what is a tricky opener. Murrayfield will be packed, and there’s about a 90 per cent chance of rain, with plenty of wind, too.
Having lost three of the past four Calcutta Cups, England, and Tom, have it all to do.
