'When I heard he was announced as England's coach, I thought that was me done in all honesty'
Chris Robshaw has pinpointed proving Eddie Jones wrong as among his career highlights, ahead of his 300th and final Harlequins appearance today.
Wily sage Jones rated Robshaw a six-and-a-half in a withering newspaper column at the 2015 World Cup, only to extend the flanker’s Test career after succeeding Stuart Lancaster.
Robshaw has revealed the hurt of the “slow death” end of his captaincy after England became the worst-performing hosts in World Cup history in 2015.
But the 34-year-old has also paid tribute to Australian taskmaster Jones, who might have removed him as captain – but also handed him a new lease of Test-match life.
Robshaw will leave his sole club Quins after Sunday’s Premiership trip to Leicester, and head to USA club San Diego Union.
The hard-grafting back-rower admitted he will move abroad being able to look back with pride on all things both club and country.
“I’m very proud of being able to win him over,” said Robshaw, of Jones.
“When I heard he was announced as England’s coach, I thought that was me done in all honesty, after those comments, and of course after the way the World Cup had gone.
“I very much expected never to play for England again. I remember getting as many of my family and friends as possible to the Uruguay game, because I thought ‘this is it’. Even in the horrible situation it was in.
“But Eddie’s been nothing but honest. We had a good sit down and a chat behind closed doors, for about an hour-and-a-half, got know each other.
“The trust he’s shown in me, the second life he gave me in playing for my country again, and getting that Grand Slam in 2016. For me that was so big, and even now.
“The RFU gave us little Grand Slam trophies. That was incredible, and something you can always look back on in the time to come when you’re an old man and reliving the glory days.
“I don’t have many things up in the house, at home I try to keep the rugby stuff a bit separate.
“But I’ve got that up upstairs, and I’ve got my 50th cap up on the mantle, the silver cap you get, which is just a nice thing to have to mark a lovely achievement.”
England swept into the 2015 World Cup on a wave of optimism, only to bomb out by failing to pass the group stages.
Stuart Lancaster and his coaching staff lost their jobs, and Robshaw, eventually, lost the captaincy, with Dylan Hartley taking over.
Now, though, Robshaw has admitted relinquishing the England captaincy lifted a great weight.
“Yes it was a relief, very much so, it was a pressured, very tough time,” said Robshaw.
“And I was feeling things, the weight on my shoulders. I felt it was something I couldn’t really escape at the time.
“It was a bit of a slow death, at the time I felt almost surrounded and suffocated by it.
“It was probably always going to happen, and when it finally did I felt ‘great, I can finally just focus on playing rugby now’.
“Eddie’s always been very good to me, he’s always been very honest, he’s never mucked me around, he’s always been pretty straight-talking and I respect him hugely for that.
“The first meeting we had in camp, he said ‘look there’s a position for you in my side at six, I want you to do X, Y and Z but for the captain I’m going to go in a different direction and I’m going to make Dylan captain’.
“I was very supportive of that, and I’m still very supportive of Dylan and the role he played, because he was fantastic.
“And I was so grateful just to have a second opportunity, a second lifeline just to play for my country again.”
Robshaw will become just the second player in Quins history to hit the 300 mark, after Mike Brown, and admitted he could think of few more fitting ways to seal his stint with the club.
“It’s something I actually started thinking about earlier this season, seeing what games I was on and seeing what I might be able to play,” said Robshaw.
“I always knew it was going to be touch and go, but I didn’t realise it would be the last game ever for Harlequins.
“Probably when I first started it was nothing that I would ever have even dreamt about trying to achieve.
“But now I’ve got close it feels like an incredible milestone to go out and represent the club as many times as I have, through the good, the bad and the ugly, so to speak.
“And I think just to finish on that is just a nice thing to look back on.
“It might not mean much to other people, but to myself, it just makes me feel quite proud.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Big difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
29 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
29 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
29 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
29 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
29 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to comments