Robshaw: Ex-England captain took Kyle Sinckler aside over discipline
Chris Robshaw has warned his Harlequins teammates their European Challenge Cup title bid will “self-implode” unless they deal with the mental pressure of trying to defeat Clermont Auvergne in Saturday’ semi-final in France.
Harlequins are facing the second best team in the Top14 who average more than seven tries a match in the Challenge Cup and will be backed by a vociferous Stade Marcel-Michelin crowd.
However, Robshaw has previous experience of upsetting the odds on French soil helping the three times Challenge Cup winners to stun big spending Stade Francais at the Stade de France in 2008 when the hosts boasted Sergio Parisse, Mathieu Bastareaud and Juan Martín Hernández.
Robshaw, who has recaptured the form that won him 66 England caps, knows that discipline in the cauldron of the Stade will be vital for a Quins side that is chasing European glory and a Gallagher Premiership play-off place this season. As the club’s co-captain, he has spoken to volatile England prop Kyle Sinckler who has found it difficult to avoid being wound up by the opposition in recent months, culminating in a needless yellow card for slapping Sale’s Faf de Klerk in the chest.
The former England captain knows that trying to stem the yellow and blue tide on Saturday with 14 men at any point will be a nightmare and said: “We know we are going to be put under severe pressure in Clermont and the bounce of the ball will do against us along with some decisions and we need to stay controlled and composed. If we can do that we will be in a good place and you don’t want to get caught up in the emotion, get a bit loose that is when you self-implode and give another penalty away. It spirals.
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“Discipline is a fine balance and having been through the roller coaster of rugby, I had a good chat with Kyle who gave a few penalties away against Sale and got wound up. As a senior guy it is about team management and understanding what they need and it could be just being there and letting them know you can help. There are some guys who respond to the stick and other who respond to a hot chocolate and a chat.
“If you look at the Clermont team then they could be in the semis of the Heineken Cup and Damian Penaud is very dangerous. The city will shut down for this game and these are the games where you want to test yourself and see what you are about.”
Robshaw, who is desperate to secure a place in England’s World Cup squad in Japan to help erase the memories of the failed 2015 campaign on home soil, believes he is now operating a the exacting level he sets himself having fought back from knee surgery which halted his international career in the Autumn and for the Six Nations.
His link with England is through defence coach John Mitchell who is tasked with keeping in contact with the back row players vying for squad places.
He added: “Eddie drops me texts but you tend to have a point of contact and that is John Mitchell. I am desperate to go to Japan and fingers crossed I can sneak into the World Cup squad having been out of contention for a while.
“When you come back from injury it takes four or five games to feel really sharp and I now feel back to the level I need, particularly in the contact area. As a team we have let ourselves down in our last four Premiership games, going into our shells but we are enjoying our rugby and are a dangerous team. Anything is possible.”
Comments on RugbyPass
What ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
129 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
129 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
129 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
129 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
129 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
129 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
129 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
129 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
129 Go to commentsHo hum.
129 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
129 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
129 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
129 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
129 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
129 Go to commentsBen, nobody gets fooled anymore by selective and biased data to support an hypothesis. Games are decided on such small margins these days that you win some and lose some, and dominance is a thing of the rugby past. Look at the RWC circle of fortune…. Ireland beats SA who beat France who beat NZ who beat Ireland. And so it goes on. Match officials help to eliminate real indiscretions. If they had been with us years before, no doubt results would have been different. Remember Andy Haden’s dive from a lineout in 1978 for which a match-wining penalty was awarded? Wales should have beaten the ABs that day. They took the loss like the gentlemen they were.
129 Go to commentsWith all the analysis and how good the all blacks were.The fundamental mistake with the ABs is that this is a test match and not an exhibition.There is no better team(country) in world rugby than the Boks that knows how to win a test match(we are post masters at this).We know our rules, we have the discipline, we tackle like beasts, we take our points and we never give up.I now have educated the ABs supporters(at least say thank you).Please stop “bitching” , accept what the outcome is and move along swiftly.
129 Go to comments