I’ve been watching highlights of England games from the past few years all morning and I’ve just realised something: This is England’s biggest game since the 2007 world cup final. I know what your thinking, ‘Don’t be be ridiculous, the Six Nations is much bigger than the Autumn tests, just look at the attendances’. You would of course be correct in thinking this, but as a one off match this is bigger than any Six Nations game in a long time.
Why? One simple word... momentum.
Its a word I hark on and on about, but for good reason, momentum is unfathomably important. It’s how promise and potential becomes reality and it is something that has eluded England for an awfully long time.
Momentum is incredibly hard to gain in international rugby as games only come in groups of 4 or 5. To do it you need to pull out a big performance in one of the 1st matches of the period and then take that confidence forwad.
England have won some big games in the last few years but they tended to come at the end of period of games (notably beating Ireland 33-10 in the last game of the ’08 SN and France 34-10 in the 2nd last game of ’09 SN). England’s failure to win games early in match cycles has prevented them from putting together a string of results. In fact the Rugby world cup was the last time England Won 3 games in-a-row in a period of consecutive games.
This set of Autumn tests have presented an opportunity to England that they have not had in a long time. The Australia game was their best performance in years, there is no debate about that. But to take any real momentum into the Six nations, to actually begin to turn their potential into a reality, and to do this in time for the World Cup... they MUST win on Saturday.
England need to play with the ambition and accuracy that they did against the Australians, do this and I have no doubts that they will win.
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