DALLGLIO: ENGLAND NEED TO GET FIT AND ON-PLAN BLOODY QUICKLY
It may have been over a year since Lawrence Dallaglio hung up his boots for England, but the former captain still feels as though he needs to harangue the current Red Rose team after a stream of dismal displays, and shake them from their torpor. Their collective fitness and mindset need to change, and fast, as they are hosted by Wales – the nation Dallaglio and his team-mates used to ridicule – this Saturday.
The 36-year-old, who won his 85th and last cap for England in the World Cup Final on October 20, 2007, believes that while the 36-11 RBS 6 Nations opener against Italy last weekend was a poor performance, the victory will have been a fillip for the dressing room, who – after three “spankings” in the autumn – will have been glad to remember what winning tastes like.
“There are two emotions in rugby,” explains Dallaglio. “There is ecstasy of victory or agony of defeat; the joy and pain. So far it has just been pain, pain, pain for England. After the Italy match they will have been down about their performance in the changing room – as they should be – but ultimately they still won.
“I have been involved in losing England teams, so I know how they would have been feeling after the autumn. But you would have thought that they would have been bottling that feeling up and there would have been an explosion of emotion against Italy on Saturday. There was nothing like that and there was nothing England showed that Wales will be overly worried about.”
Against reigning grand slam champions Wales, Dallaglio suggests that England need to change their mindset, and banish their insecurities – in essence they need to front up. Gone are the days when the super-fit England players would sneer at their over-weight opponents from over the Severn Bridge – now it is the complete opposite, and it is the Welsh who are drinking less of the Brains bitter and adding more brawn and fitness.
“We always used to look at the Welsh team and take the piss, really,” says World Cup winner Dallaglio, speaking on behalf of Greene King IPA, the Official Beer of England Rugby. “We would tell them how unfit we all thought they were, and wonder how they could even come to Twickenham and even think about beating us if they couldn’t run for 40 minutes. It’s sad for me to say, but I think it is the other way around now.
“That is the main thing that concerns me – England’s level of fitness. Really, when you are the best player in your position in the world – which is what all the England guys should be trying to do – you have to be one of the fittest players in the world, too.
“Guys like Jonny Wilkinson and Neil Back drove our fitness and made me even question myself on a number of occasions. I want to know who is doing the finger-pointing within the England dressing room now.
“If you want to aspire to be the best player in the world in your position, you have got to do more on the odd sprint session. You have to get there by hard work. I would let the fitness coaches have them for the next six months and put them through some really hard work, as I don’t think it is being done at their clubs; not to the level it needs to be.
“The standards were set in 2003, and five, six years later we should have moved on – not gone backwards. There has been no evolution. When I was playing I used to get up at 6am and meet Will Greenwood and Jason Leonard and the fitness coach Dave Reddin and do an hour-and-a-half training session even before we went to the club. Of course there is an extra sacrifice involved in that, but what are you trying to do? Are you trying to be the best in the world, or just the best in your club?”
On Saturday’s hosts at the Millennium Stadium Dallaglio adds: “Wales have made huge strides in the last 12 months with their fitness, and we have the staff to do it, but there has to be a mindset change with the players. Let us not forget that it is, more or less, the same Wales team that are performing so well now who got dumped out of the World Cup by Fiji. All Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards have done is opened their minds a little bit. That is something that needs to take place with England very, very quickly.
“Each player has to set his sights on being the best player in the world in their particular position – we are nowhere near that. At the moment if you were to pick the top four or five players in every position then I don’t think man England players would feature. The trouble is, in their own minds I think they think that. You just want someone to grab that team forward by the scruff of the neck.
“If you are Martin Johnson you would be pointing your fingers at some of the guys and telling them that international rugby is not for the mentally weak, that you don’t get a second chance, and that some of you owe me, and the rest of the country a special performance. Martin has done very well to keep his temper in front of the media – because I would have been going mental by now at some of the performances I have seen from the players.
“Against Scotland last week Wales showed they had a pattern and understood the way they were trying to play. When England have the ball they don’t, at the moment, look like a team who know exactly what they are trying to do. Martin said that people had gone off-plan after the game; well I suggest that people get back on-plan, and bloody quickly.”
It may have been over a year since Lawrence Dallaglio hung up his boots for England, but the former captain still feels as though he needs to harangue the current Red Rose team after a stream of dismal displays, and shake them from their torpor. Their collective fitness and mindset need to change, and fast, as they are hosted by Wales – the nation Dallaglio and his team-mates used to ridicule – this Saturday.
The 36-year-old, who won his 85th and last cap for England in the World Cup Final on October 20, 2007, believes that while the 36-11 RBS 6 Nations opener against Italy last weekend was a poor performance, the victory will have been a fillip for the dressing room, who – after three “spankings” in the autumn – will have been glad to remember what winning tastes like.
“There are two emotions in rugby,” explains Dallaglio. “There is ecstasy of victory or agony of defeat; the joy and pain. So far it has just been pain, pain, pain for England. After the Italy match they will have been down about their performance in the changing room – as they should be – but ultimately they still won.
“I have been involved in losing England teams, so I know how they would have been feeling after the autumn. But you would have thought that they would have been bottling that feeling up and there would have been an explosion of emotion against Italy on Saturday. There was nothing like that and there was nothing England showed that Wales will be overly worried about.”
Against reigning grand slam champions Wales, Dallaglio suggests that England need to change their mindset, and banish their insecurities – in essence they need to front up. Gone are the days when the super-fit England players would sneer at their over-weight opponents from over the Severn Bridge – now it is the complete opposite, and it is the Welsh who are drinking less of the Brains bitter and adding more brawn and fitness.
“We always used to look at the Welsh team and take the piss, really,” says World Cup winner Dallaglio, speaking on behalf of Greene King IPA, the Official Beer of England Rugby. “We would tell them how unfit we all thought they were, and wonder how they could even come to Twickenham and even think about beating us if they couldn’t run for 40 minutes. It’s sad for me to say, but I think it is the other way around now.
“That is the main thing that concerns me – England’s level of fitness. Really, when you are the best player in your position in the world – which is what all the England guys should be trying to do – you have to be one of the fittest players in the world, too.
“Guys like Jonny Wilkinson and Neil Back drove our fitness and made me even question myself on a number of occasions. I want to know who is doing the finger-pointing within the England dressing room now.
“If you want to aspire to be the best player in the world in your position, you have got to do more on the odd sprint session. You have to get there by hard work. I would let the fitness coaches have them for the next six months and put them through some really hard work, as I don’t think it is being done at their clubs; not to the level it needs to be.
“The standards were set in 2003, and five, six years later we should have moved on – not gone backwards. There has been no evolution. When I was playing I used to get up at 6am and meet Will Greenwood and Jason Leonard and the fitness coach Dave Reddin and do an hour-and-a-half training session even before we went to the club. Of course there is an extra sacrifice involved in that, but what are you trying to do? Are you trying to be the best in the world, or just the best in your club?”
On Saturday’s hosts at the Millennium Stadium Dallaglio adds: “Wales have made huge strides in the last 12 months with their fitness, and we have the staff to do it, but there has to be a mindset change with the players. Let us not forget that it is, more or less, the same Wales team that are performing so well now who got dumped out of the World Cup by Fiji. All Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards have done is opened their minds a little bit. That is something that needs to take place with England very, very quickly.
“Each player has to set his sights on being the best player in the world in their particular position – we are nowhere near that. At the moment if you were to pick the top four or five players in every position then I don’t think man England players would feature. The trouble is, in their own minds I think they think that. You just want someone to grab that team forward by the scruff of the neck.
“If you are Martin Johnson you would be pointing your fingers at some of the guys and telling them that international rugby is not for the mentally weak, that you don’t get a second chance, and that some of you owe me, and the rest of the country a special performance. Martin has done very well to keep his temper in front of the media – because I would have been going mental by now at some of the performances I have seen from the players.
“Against Scotland last week Wales showed they had a pattern and understood the way they were trying to play. When England have the ball they don’t, at the moment, look like a team who know exactly what they are trying to do. Martin said that people had gone off-plan after the game; well I suggest that people get back on-plan, and bloody quickly.”
Labels: England, Italy, Lawrence Dallaglio, Martin Johnson, RBS 6 Nations
