Relaxed is not a word usually associated with a camp run by the workaholic Eddie Jones but as Chris Robshaw reclines in an armchair at a five-star hotel in Bath, it is one he reaches for as he prepares for a match against the team who in effect ended his stint as England captain six months ago.
Wales revisit Twickenham on Saturday, the scene of their victory at the end of September last year that dug them out of the pool of death and plunged England into a deep hole they were unable to scramble out of a week later against Australia.
In the fallout from becoming the first World Cup hosts to fail to reach the quarter-finals, Stuart Lancaster and his coaching team departed as his successor, Jones, opted for a complete overhaul. Robshaw was replaced as captain by Dylan Hartley but kept his place in the team, at blindside flanker rather than on the openside, and darkness has turned into light with England in sight of a first Six Nations grand slam since 2003.
“The World Cup will always be a part of me and a number of the guys here but you cannot let it hang over you,” says Robshaw. “It was a bit eerie going back to Twickenham to face Ireland in the last round after what had happened there in the previous two games [Wales and Australia]; it felt different when we got off the bus but as soon as you got on the pitch you remembered what it was all about, what it represents and what a great place it is to play rugby.”
There is a sense that the Lancaster years have been swept into a pile and dumped in a bin, airbrushed out politburo-style. Robshaw was his captain throughout, apart from two tour Tests when he was rested and another when injured, and a player known for his loyalty still keeps in touch with his former boss. “A little bit but not too much,” he says.
“In sport you have to continue to move forward and our alliances are with Eddie now. I am not going to compare the two regimes. Eddie has come in, put his mark on it and we are moving around a bit more rather than spending eight weeks at Pennyhill Park. The players are enjoying it and we feel there is more to come.”
Asked if the unfavourable comparisons that had been made with the new regime were unfair to Lancaster, he gives the reply of a player smart enough to detect a trap. “You’re always going to get comparisons. There were before when Stuart first came in with Johnno [Martin Johnson, who was in charge of England between 2008 and 2011]. It’s probably the nature of how it works but it’s not for players to draw on. We want to go out there and play as well as we can for whomever is in charge. Eddie’s been good so far. He and the coaches have got everyone to buy into what it’s about.”
One of Jones’s first meetings on arrival was with Robshaw, who was expected not only to be replaced as captain but dropped from the squad. The first duly happened, with Hartley better reflecting Jones’s spiky, in-your-face nature as much as Robshaw represented the integrity of Lancaster, but not the second. The forward has been given the opportunity to reinvent himself on the blindside, the new head coach respecting Robshaw’s diligence and refusal to let adversity drag him down.
“I am enjoying it,” he says, “being part of a winning team and my role in it. The backline has so much potential, gelling well, and there is a huge amount of excitement in the side. There is less for me to focus on without the captaincy, fewer meetings to go to and less to worry about, getting the boys going if they are off and stuff like that.
“From a selfish point of view, you can relax and play cards without worrying too much about anything else. You get to focus a lot more on your game. I will happily help Dylan if he wants me to, but he is doing a great job so far.”
And so to Wales, a team who have provided Robshaw with two of his lowest points in an England jersey: last year’s World Cup and the end of the Six Nations when England arrived in Cardiff looking for the grand slam and left without the consolation of the title. It is a fixture that has been won by the away side four times in the past six matches, but he is not one to attack with statistics.
“You guys look at them more than we do,” he says. “I have had some thoroughly enjoyable games against Wales and some very tough ones. You know when you play them that you have to be on your mettle. We know the intensity this week is going to go up and up and the anticipation in the crowd will be more than it has been but these are the games you want to play in.
“I’m sure we will look at the World Cup match and the areas where we were exploited but I do not think what happened will be a factor. This is a new era and a new tournament and I hope we can put it right.
“We will be smart in our approach; in a match like this, it is about having clarity in high-pressure moments, thinking clearly and executing. You cannot go off the page remembering the hurt we suffered last September. We will be pumped up but focused. It was tough after the World Cup but I am in a good place now.”
