The home advantage – ill-preparing for the away fixture.
March 22, 2011
England choked. No doubt about it. After beating Wales, Italy, France and Scotland, they just needed to secure one more win to take the Grand Slam in this World Cup year. With a history of choking on the last game England have failed to take the grand slam for 8 years.
This year however, England may have been playing within their comfort zone for too long. Out of the 9 fixtures they have played this year, England have played only two away fixtures; one of which being the game in Dublin last weekend.
“Fortress Twickenham” has often provided that invincible feeling for England. The crowd are vocal, the team know the pitch well and nothing beats that atmosphere on match day. But travelling to Dublin for the first match they had played in the new Lansdowne Road, on St Patrick’s day weekend, for the Triple Crown, the Grand Slam and the Championship provided England with an entirely different set of circumstances.
The likes of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa can deal with this type of pressure as they demonstrated well during their summer tours, but England will need to step it up if they are going to have a chance of making the final of the World Cup in New Zealand this year.
England have three warm-up matches (Wales home and away, Ireland) before they travel to New Zealand so Martin Johnson will have to find a way to ramp up the pressure so that these games feel like world cup games in themselves. With this in mind, they’ll begin to understand the huge pressure they’ll be under and how to deal with it to produce a fantastic performance in a very rugby proud nation, in the biggest event in the rugby calendar. Good luck England!
