Even though spring has just begun, international rugby is already looking ahead to summer. With the season for Welsh regions concluding in April, Warren Gatland has named his provisional World Cup squad. He did so on Monday, 132 days before Wales’s first match – Steve Borthwick has been England’s head coach for less time – but as the end-of-season run-in approaches in Europe, so does the World Cup.
Gatland’s squad announcement can be viewed as the beginning of Wales’s campaign, and if they are the first team out of the gates, his European counterparts will be finalizing their respective strategies.
Head coaches have underlined the importance of uninterrupted player access, which these teams will soon enter. Eddie Jones was effectively counting down to this juncture before his dismissal as England’s head coach. As Gatland stated, “At times it feels like a club team due to the amount of time you spend with the players.”
The players of the Wales coach have not yet reported to camp, and for the first month they will not even remain overnight, but, significantly, they will convene on 25 May, before the Premiership final.
Gatland has the time to whip his players into shape – judging by their fifth-place finish in the Six Nations, he needs to – but the effectiveness with which he does so will determine how Wales navigate a World Cup draw that places them in the more favorable half, but in a pool with Australia and Fiji.
Borthwick, on the other hand, has less time to prepare his squad. All England players are required to take five weeks off following the conclusion of the regular season. So they will report to the pre-World Cup camp in batches. The teams whose seasons conclude this weekend will be available beginning in mid-June, followed by the losing Premiership semi-finalists a week later and the champions in early July. Borthwick is somewhat aided by Exeter’s loss to La Rochelle on Sunday. As Henry Slade and the rest of the Chiefs’ England contingent will now be in that first batch. However, Borthwick would have preferred to test some of his players in a Champions Cup final, which mitigates any advantage.
Jones called these weeks “head start” or “base camp for Everest,” emphasising fitness. Borthwick cautioned his players after the Six Nations, “We don’t want to spend the World Cup camp getting fit. We want to use it to improve.” It was an incisive remark. According to the post-tournament study, England was far from fit throughout the Six Nations. Therefore conditioning will be a priority early on.
Here, Aled Walters comes into play. In 2019, the respected Welsh strength and conditioning coach was a member of South Africa’s staff.
After Leicester’s season, he and Richard Wigglesworth will join Borthwick’s squad and will need to hit the ground running. England’s players must adjust to another attack coach since Nick Evans’ Harlequins contract precludes a second secondment.
In addition to conditioning, man-management is a challenge throughout the summer. Players who are ostensibly squad fillers — in camp while more established players complete their required five-week break — must believe they have a realistic chance of making the World Cup squad. It was one of the most revealing findings of the leaked post-World Cup review in 2011 that young Chris Robshaw consistently trained at a high level but was omitted for selection due to Martin Johnson’s preference for more experienced players. Likewise, players who join later must be swiftly brought up to speed.
As much as conditioning and “getting better” will be emphasized, as stated by Borthwick, a balance must be struck.
All labor and no play, as the saying goes. Jones added dodgeball to the summer programs and took his squad to an RAF base in Cornwall for a night of survival training four years ago. The timing was telling, just before he announced his provisional squad, as was the fact that players had to surrender their phones because, make no mistake, they pay heed to the rumors surrounding their possible selection. Equally, too much freedom and too much free time create labor for idle hands. It is also true that not all outside-the-box ideas are excellent.
Jones revealed that the players requested that he name his final squad early to end their suffering. He did so on the day following England’s first warm-up match in early August 2019. In retrospect, it was a shrewd move because the tension among his players was immediately alleviated. Ben Te’o and Mike Brown clashed on a night out during England’s late-July warm-weather training program in Treviso, Italy. Jones kicked both players out of the squad, and a senior player later revealed how significant that was: both in terms of a wake-up call for players who, coming from so many different clubs, always take some time to gel, and as a way to release the pressure that had built up with selection-related thoughts occupying their minds.
In the week preceding the World Cup final, Mako Vunipola remarked, “There have been a few moments when we’ve wondered, ‘Is this going the right way or the way that we had hoped?'”
Probably because of this, we have worked harder on this. Creating genuine relationships off the pitch is difficult. And as much as we speak about togetherness, this feels the most authentic, and we do not take that lightly.”
Jones intended to transport his players back to Treviso and Switzerland before he was fired, but Borthwick altered England’s plans during the Six Nations and subsequently stated his intention to do so before the World Cup. Summer training courses in warm climates remain popular, however. Wales will travel to Switzerland and Turkey, while Scotland will hold their World Cup training exercise in Nice. Ireland holds a warm-weather camp and travels to France after the summer. The French have canceled their voyage to Guyana, but they will set up camp in Monaco. The benefits of acclimatization are evident, but there are also risks, even beyond the possibility of colleagues clashing.
In 2019, Ireland traveled to Portugal, where they were effectively confined. Before a disappointing season, the then-captain, Rory Best, explained how the team allowed Joe Schmidt’s infamous methods to become too oppressive. In 2015, England traveled to Denver. But it later became apparent that Stuart Lancaster’s authoritarian approach did not sit well with players in need of release. Perhaps understandable given England’s status as hosts. But the 2015 campaign also revealed the perils of placing too much emphasis on sponsors’ commitments.
As he finalizes England’s summer plans, Borthwick will have grappled with all of this.
Four years ago, he was Jones’ right-hand man and will have seen what worked and what did not. He was Jones’ right-hand man four years ago and witnessed what worked and didn’t.
According to all accounts, he was the glue that held everything together during Jones’s regime. However, if England is to be competitive, he and his staff must also create cohesion, improve conditioning, and forge bonds with their players in addition to making enormous strides on the pitch. Jones wanted more free time this summer, but as during Borthwick’s stay, he had to make do.
