💥 Check out this awesome post from BBC Sport 📖
📂 Category:
📌 Key idea:
The danger comes when teams reach their absolute splendor in the middle of a World Cup cycle.
We’ve seen that before. But New Zealand and South Africa won the World Cup twice in a row and were the best team in the world for long periods.
It’s not a negative to be the best team in the world before 2027.
If England can climb the world rankings by winning the Six Nations or Championship and finishing first or second, they will be in a strong position to reach the World Cup final. This is the ultimate goal.
People always talk about climaxing too early, but I see it differently. These are the moments where you learn everything you’ve learned, and if you get a win then so be it.
England will not remain unbeaten all the way to the World Cup, and part of the learning process is knowing how to bounce back from defeat.
In a weird way, I would actually like England to lose a match at some stage, because what they don’t want is for it to be their first loss in a World Cup knockout match.
England have been completely dominant this autumn and have shown they can win ugly too.
Achieving that emotional level against New Zealand was always going to be difficult, and in 2019 they were miles away from their famous semi-final win.
However, they proved against Argentina that they can do it.
If they put in a big performance, for example, at Murrayfield, the challenge is to back it up the following week.
When you’re winning, you can really dig into the little details, whereas before it was all about selection, style of play or injuries.
You don’t have to worry about that in England now, it’s about improving the little things that get you into the top team.
Sir Clive Woodward called these “the one percenters”, the small details that make a difference.
Winning teams have the fundamentals, which allows coaches to spend time on everything else.
Not many current England players have had the opportunity to focus on those smaller elements.
That is why Ireland and France have had such long successes.
Now that England know how to win games, they can improve further to progress to the top of the Six Nations.
⚡ What do you think?
#️⃣ #Matt #Dawson #column #Grand #Slams #stepping #stone
