Chris Robshaw
It is 8 November.
England are about to tackle the All Blacks at Twickenham.
For captain Chris Robshaw, matchday starts with a lie-in; he has his own room due to his thunderous snoring. Then comes breakfast, a massage and some physio if required before the forwards go through a couple of plays while the backs play a passing game.
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Lunch follows then the final team meeting. “There are a couple of key reminders in that meeting,” Robshaw told ESPN. “We look at how the week has been but it varies on the mood in the camp. Stuart runs that giving us our last messages.”
A journey from Pennyhill Park to Twickenham takes in the region of 40 minutes. It is a quiet trip with the players in their own thoughts. Under the current regime the coach now parks a few extra metres outside the lion gate entrance to the West Stand so the supporters can see their team before they take refuge within the lower echelons of the stadium.
“You walk off the bus and see these rows and rows of people and that’s when it hits you, the excitement. I remember seeing it as a kid and it’s a real honour to be there, doing that. That’s when you are really ready for it.”
For Robshaw, he will be the first into the changing room and he will look up at the names above his peg in the changing room. The names of his predecessors are there in bold black print on a white background.
Under the No.7 are etched, among others, Peter Winterbottom, Lewis Moody and Neil Back as is 1316 – Robshaw’s unique number among the 1361 players to have run out for England. “It’s fantastic to look back to see the Winterbottoms and others. You are there and you have to back up what the guys have done before you.”
The players then go through the final warm-ups and run-throughs on the pitch before they head back to the changing room for one last summit prior to the walk up the tunnel. “There is a lot of talking in the warm up but the last talk in the changing room is a combination of myself and the other game leaders but it’s about having clarity.
Everyone is ready and psyched up. Everything has already been said.”
Then come the anthems. “You just feel excited. You have been trying to get there since you were a kid so to be there and be there singing the anthems, while the camera goes along the faces which you saw as a kid is great. That’s where you want to be.”
At least that is how Robshaw wants it to be come November 8 but World Cup years do strange things to coaches and players.
He was one of the standout players on their summer tour to New Zealand, outplaying Richie McCaw in the first Test, but even at the end of a pleasing tour for him on a personal note, when Lancaster was asked whether Robshaw would continue as captain he refrained from rubber-stamping it.
There are no ‘first names on the teamsheet’ in this regime.
Places are still available in England’s team; some see that as a positive or a sign of them being behind in preparation. But players are under scrutiny like never before.
Take September 12. One bad performance like Harlequins had against Saracens which saw the victors’ No.7 Will Fraser named Man of the Match while Robshaw slumped off the field.
As the Stoop shrunk into an eerie silence, it seemed like doomsday and the unthinkable was starting to materialise where Robshaw may end up not being the man who would take the first steps off the team coach come November 8.
But eight days later he put in a superb performance against Wasps leading to staunch praise from his Quins boss O’Shea: “He is an absolutely magnificent rugby player and any team would be lesser without him.”
It is a campaign of mental oscillation.
Pressure is nothing new for Robshaw and while he does keep an eye on how the other opensides are playing, he prefers to take an introspective outlook on the game. “You want to make sure you are playing as well as possible and doing the correct things off the pitch, you need to make sure you recover well and are fresh as possible for the weekend.
“You try and stay away from what is being said in the press as best as possible but you are told and have an inkling about what is being said and what is going on.
“You are thinking about it while you watch rugby at home. While you watch the other back-rows, you think about what call you would have made in that situation, what you would have done. You don’t watch it as a casual viewer anymore, it’s about learning.
Switching off is just as important; it is about balance.
“It is a big year but you find out what works well for you to cope with pressure. So whether it’s playing golf, going for a walk with the other half and the dog in the park it’s nothing out of the ordinary, there is no magic cure. It’s just about having time out to relax.”
This time four years ago, Robshaw was arguably England’s form openside yet he was overlooked for what proved to be a fairly disastrous World Cup campaign in New Zealand. As chance would have it, Robshaw was one part of a double act with Martin Johnson at a MasterCard event at the London Eye on Thursday.
It was one World Cup-winning captain alongside the current skipper whose goal is to join that illustrious club but also the man who killed Robshaw’s 2011 World Cup dreams.
“I’ve always wanted to play in a World Cup. It was gutting not to be involved in 2011 but I remember Martin Johnson saying on day one when we met up that if nothing else, it was an opportunity to have a pre-season with the best players in the country so you use those benefits and try and make the most of it. Of course I was upset not to go but you have to bounce back in the right way.”
It was a setback that made the man.
A year on and he was England captain and a Premiership champion with his club. Come October 22, England will name their new Elite Player Squad. Robshaw will be there, of that there is no doubt, but he will not be taking anything for granted. There will be no going through the motions as under Lancaster no place in the team is a tattooed certainty.
Robshaw knows World Cup heartbreak better than most but has a steely resolve for there to be no repeat next summer.