Robinson ready to seize chance
COACHING ROLE CAME AS SHOCK
IF ED ROBINSON occasionally feels like a competition winner rather than a member of the England coaching team ahead of the Calcutta Cup clash, then it would be hard to blame him.
He has never played at professional level, earns his living in the English second tier with Jersey and, at 27, is three years younger than Jonny May, who he was working with on high-ball skills yesterday to prepare for Saturday’s Six Nations clash with Scotland at Twickenham.
The interim skills coach was a left-field appointment by head coach Eddie Jones – in coaching terms the equivalent of the schoolboy Test call-up.
He said: “I am sure everybody feels like it at times in their lives where they are looking round thinking, ‘What’s going on here?’
“But I feel at home on the field so to get on the field really has been great for me.
“My role is about upskilling the players, making sure that when they take to the field at the weekend, they feel unbeatable.
“If I can help with one per cent, helping them get better, that’s great.”
Robinson comes from elite coaching stock given his father Andy – now in charge of Romania – coached both
England and Scotland. But it takes more than good DNA to make the leap he has done.
Part of it was down to circumstance. His own playing career ended with a bad concussion at Loughborough University, the continuing effects of which – headaches and difficulty with bright lights – remain with him. Part of it was down to a willingness to get his hands dirty. Having started coaching as a student, Robinson worked his way up the league ladder with Clifton, Rotherham and Jersey.
But mainly it was about seizing the moment when Jones was in the Channel
Islands 13 months ago. “I managed to get an hour with him,” said Robinson. “I basically just peppered him, picking his brain about all sorts of topics around rugby and coaching. I was able to come into camp for a day before the Wales Test in the Six Nations last year, just to see what was going on. “When lockdown happened we spoke every week on Zoom, then two weeks ago, out of the blue, I had a text saying, ‘Call me’. “I called him and I flew in the next day. A chance to come into one of the best teams in the world, one of the best coaching groups in the world, was just too good.” JEAN-PIERRE BASTIAT, No8 in France’s 1977 Grand Slam-winning team, has died aged 71 after a stroke.