England are fit for purpose: Lancaster's new work ethic will leave France struggling to keep up at Twickenham
By SIR CLIVE WOODWARD
When the top six teams in the world face each other, you would be amazed how often there is less than a single score separating them with 20 minutes to go.
Winning big matches is about coming home strongest - and the fitter team will always have an advantage.
The golden rule is to select 15 players to start the match who can last 80 minutes. Stuart Lancaster’s team look as if they can do that, but the same can’t be said of the French.
Fitness: Stuart Lancaster oversees an England training session ahead of their crunch clash against France
Lean and mean: England captain Chris Robshaw during the win in Dublin last time out
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In 2003, we were the fittest rugby team in the world. I believe that team was fitter than England’s 2011 World Cup side. Eighteen months ago, the players were off the pace and not fit enough. No sophisticated tests were needed, you could tell just by looking at their body shapes.
Lancaster recognised the problem, brought in Matt Parker from British Cycling as head of athletic performance and that is no longer the case. It is a shame it has taken 10 years to spot what was patently obvious, but Lancaster deserves credit for securing the best person for the job. England 2013 are not yet there, but they now have the personnel to go beyond the fitness of the 2003 team.
When I first took charge of England, we were wiped out by New Zealand, Australia and South Africa on the 1998 ‘Tour of Hell’. I realised we were stuck in the amateur era in terms of our fitness. There was only one player this didn’t apply to - Josh Lewsey. He was ahead of everyone else in terms of fitness and physique.
Yachtsman Ben Ainslie, one of the greatest Olympians, said to me during the Beijing Games: ‘It does not matter what sport you play, your skin has to fit.’ This reminded me of Lewsey. He clearly understood the importance of fitness, perhaps benefiting from his experience in the Army.
To make a point I once asked Lewsey to take off his shirt in a team meeting. He looked a little quizzical at first but when I began explaining to the group that this was the standard I expected every player to attain, his pride was pretty clear - as it should have been. I’m sure he got some stick for it, but it worked. Josh continued to set the standard throughout his career, as shown by his explosive speed and substantial power for a player of shorter stature.
It is one thing bringing an expert into the team, but he has to be able to get his message over to the players. Fitness coach Dave Reddin is the best I have worked with. Players were given individually tailored regimes according to their position, how we wanted them to play the game and their biology.
Appointment: Lancaster drafted in Matt Parker as the head of athletic performance from British Cycling
'Play high-tempo rugby and push French to limit'
The level of detail was immense, right down to what drinks they were taking to rehydrate. From where we were in 1998, we became world leaders in this department, not just in rugby but across all sports.
I am not convinced France are doing the same. Against Wales, coach Philippe Saint-Andre changed both his props on 50 minutes. It was obviously pre-planned, but you should never plan a substitution. You must judge the game and make those decisions based on tactics, injuries and fatigue. While Wales were winding up the pace and pushing in the final quarter, the French players were bent double, catching their breath.
Example: Josh Lewsey prided himself on his physical condition
I’m not saying for a second this is the result of a cultural problem in French sport or that the players are eating too much bread and cheese - I watched the French judo team at the Olympics very closely last summer and they were in unbelievable shape. But athletes need to understand the importance of power and fitness in the marginal gains that make a difference in a match.
It’s not just about time spent in the gym. It’s a deeper mentality about the way you live your life, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. There can be too much emphasis on size and bulk and if the France team reduced their body fat by three to five per cent, the exponential gain would be massive.
If you want to win the 2015 World Cup, you have to train like Olympic athletes. The Southern Hemisphere powerhouses understand this and physical conditioning has always been the basis for how those countries run sport. Northern Hemisphere nations have never been quite up to speed in this vital area.
All smiles: Robshaw led his team out for the Captain's Run
Fitness affects all elements of the game but specifically your decision-making - if your brain is not getting enough oxygen you start to make bad calls. Tight games are often lost because of a stupid penalty that comes from a tired player making a bad decision at a ruck or maul. Fatigue makes a player operate by instinct and he is not able to think properly under pressure.
French club rugby is more stop-start than the English game and this could also be hampering the national team. You can do all the fitness work you like, but unless you’re being pushed in the final seconds of games week-in, week-out then you will get found out.
I always got on very well with Bernard Laporte when he was coaching France. In 2004, I asked him if I could spend a week in their training facility at Marcoussis near Paris to watch how they operated. By then I was Lions coach and, because he wanted the Lions to beat New Zealand, he agreed.
Preparation: The England team trained at Twickenham on Friday
Point to prove: Tuilagi returns to the starting XV for the first time since the All Blacks win
Prop idol: Joe Marler takes the ball as England run it through the hands in training
However, Laporte being Laporte, he hadn’t told anyone I was coming. I arrived at the gates with my bags and he showed me to my room. He then told me I was welcome to sit in on a team meeting.
As always I was early for the meeting, so I was the only person in the room when six players came through the door. A former England coach who had knocked them out of the World Cup a year earlier and public enemy No 1 in French rugby was sitting in their private meeting room. They just stopped, stared and walked straight back out.
Moments later, wing Christophe Dominici came back in and shook my hand. I remember him saying: ‘It is you! We thought it was a ghost, our worst nightmare coming to visit us!’
Struggling: France looked tired during their defeat to Wales in Paris
Dominici was charming and broke the ice. Soon the other players came over to shake hands and share a joke. Once the room was full, Laporte walked in chuckling to himself, saying: ‘I thought I’d surprise you all with an enemy in our camp!’
It was fascinating to watch them train and I was blown away by their facilities. England have only one pitch at Pennyhill Park that is still not the full size and alongside it they use a temporary gym built in a marquee. France have a training camp fit for a professional sports team. It’s what I tried to get for England and we still haven’t got one. A state-of-the-art facility for all England teams should have been the legacy of the World Cup - 10 years later the RFU are still talking about it. These players and coaches deserve better. I would encourage England to keep using Pennyhill, as it has been brilliant for England for many years, but they also need a world-leading high-performance centre.
Opposition: The French team in training at Twickenham on Friday
I noticed the French training lacked the structure we had at England, but this was intentional. Laporte coached very differently - in a funny way it was very French, which should not have been a surprise. A lot of training was at half or three-quarter pace and they didn’t have the team of specialists we had.
France train without structure because so many players are comfortable finding holes in a broken game. The emphasis was on players finding space - one of their great strengths. It was a joy to watch. It wasn’t just throwing the ball around having fun, they were trying to find holes in unstructured game situations.
There are two lessons here. First, England can succeed if they keep their structure and their defensive shapes whenever France have the ball. Don’t let them find any holes in your line. Secondly, England must play a high-tempo game that they are fit enough to handle but which will test the French to their physical limits, especially in the last 20 minutes.
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