Chris Robshaw is confident he will get onside with the referee, Jérôme Garcès, at the Millennium Stadium on Friday night, two years after he failed to establish any sort of rapport with Steve Walsh as England were penalised time and again at the scrum and breakdown on their way to a record defeat against Wales.
The Wales head coach, Warren Gatland, who was then on sabbatical as he prepared for the Lions tour to Australia, cited the relationship Sam Warburton struck up with the New Zealander Walsh that evening as a reason behind the decision to give him the armband for the Lions series against the Wallabies, even though he was not leading the men in red having just returned from injury. Robshaw did not even make the Lions squad.
Walsh, who had previous with England, barely allowed Robshaw to get a word in but Warburton, in contrast, was able to get an explanation from the referee after being penalised at a ruck and was not waved away when he laboured the point. “Sam has the ability to speak to referees and there are only two or three players in the world they would allow to talk to them like that,” said Gatland after naming his Lions squad.
Robshaw appreciates that, if England are to get their Six Nations campaign off to a successful start having fallen at the first hurdle in Paris a year ago, he will need to establish a relationship with Garcès on a night when the crowd will be noisily behind the home side and putting pressure on the referee.
“How you get on as a captain with the referee is a factor but I do not think it is the main one in terms of what happened two years ago,” said the England captain.
“Our scrum that day was perceived not to have gone as well as we would have liked and when you have been pinged four times for not rolling away and you are appealing about something they have done, the referee is probably not going to listen to you.
“Jérôme Garcès is a great referee who communicates clearly in fluent English and gives honest feedback. If you approach him, he will allow you to speak to him at the right moment. He refereed our last international, against Australia, and we have had him a few times at Harlequins. I always analyse my interaction with referees and it’s about doing things at the right time.”
Warburton will be leading Wales, a post he has held for nearly four years despite relinquishing it briefly to Gethin Jenkins after coming back from injury in 2013, on an occasion when he will win his 50th cap. When England speak about what happened in Cardiff two years ago – and it is not a subject they appreciate being brought up – they all refer to the atmosphere at the ground that night, which even for those who had been there before was something they had never encountered.
“The Millennium Stadium is one of the loudest places I have been to, up there with Ellis Park,” said Robshaw. “If the crowd is up, 50-50 calls might go against you. The coaches put us under duress and fatigue last week to make sure we can handle the pressure, intensity and hostility we will face on Friday. We must go down there and not be shocked by anything. It will be about having clarity and shape from the first minute to the last and being able to take opportunities when they arise.”
The two sides will meet in the pool stages of the World Cup at Twickenham later in the year, but no one from either camp is dwelling on that. England and Wales form one of the oldest rivalries in the game and, if victory tends to be celebrated more raucously west of the Severn Bridge, Robshaw’s men are resolved to make up for what happened in 2013.
“Having the biggest loss to Wales on your CV is never a nice one to have,” said the 28-year-old. “When you suffer a defeat like that, it is about how you bounce back. It was a bad time but we did not dip, continuing to move forward. We are in a better place now, having come a long way, and, even with a few guys missing, every time we meet up we seem to be better than we were before.
“The guys definitely know the structures better, the lineout moves, the plays, the patterns, the cohesion between different parts. The understanding is there under adversity. I do not know for sure if we were naive or off our guard last time in Cardiff but we have to do our basics well on Friday because it will be about who thinks the clearest in the heat of the moment.”
