TRAINING SECRETS THAT CAN MAKE ENGLAND . . . WORLD BEATERS
5-stone backpacks for brutal stair climbs Line-out throws using boxing gloves GPS measures how quickly players get back on their feet
ALL-COMERS have been swept aside as England have won 17 consecutive matches under Eddie Jones. It’s a record 18 in a row if you count the Uruguay victory that ended a horrible World Cup under Stuart Lancaster.
England’s transformation has been stark from a confused side who crumbled in front of the world to a fizzing set of world-beaters led expertly by an Australian super-coach.
The renaissance hasn’t just happened at Twickenham. The secrets of England’s success can be found at their Pennyhill Park training camp — and some of those secrets have now been revealed by the players themselves.
The day after marmalising Scotland, Joe Launchbury, Jamie George and Nathan Hughes took part in an Old Mutual Wealth Kids First coaching course at Weybridge Vandals rugby club in Surrey. Launchbury was first to give
Sportsmail a fascinating insight.
He said: ‘ We have the luxury of coming in for an eight-week period in the Six Nations so you give it a big blast.
‘ What we mean by training intensely is that, it may not be a long session or even full contact, but we train in a way that gets you ready for the game.
‘GPS plays a big part. We have guys who are very good at looking at data so we can train efficiently. If you can’t train efficiently, how can you play efficiently?
‘A training session will be catered around the needs of a very demanding Test. As forwards a big thing for us is getting off the floor. We run distances, but our main thing is getting up and down, working hard in tight areas.’
Each player has a GPS unit that sits between the shoulder blades — it is built into their training kit
and match- day shirts — and Jones’s favourite thing is that it measures the number of seconds it takes each player to rise from the ground. He is mildly obsessed by it!
After England beat Wales, Jones revealed that he gives his players a maximum of three seconds to get back on their feet. He said England are getting better but are still ‘seven per cent slower’ than the All Blacks, adding that in the bad old days ‘some of the blokes had a cup of tea and a scone with jam and cream before they got off the ground!’
Launchbury said: ‘ It is very important. The more men you have on their feet, the more you have in the defensive line and the better your defence is — it is a very simple concept but it is one we bang into each other. It is a sign of wanting to work hard for your team-mates. Our team is built on that trust.’
Some methods are less hightech. Take the boxing glove that Steve Borthwick, the forwards coach, makes hooker George wear on his left hand when practising line-out throws.
‘Physically I feel in the best condition I have for a long time,’ said George.
‘Before, when I used to train, I would throw 100 balls and most of them would go near the target and I would never really put myself under pressure; whereas now he’s putting me under a lot of pressure. I am missing more but I feel better off the back of it.
‘The ball doesn’t fly well with a boxing glove, but it is more about making sure your hands go towards the target. I feel my throwing has improved.
‘What I used to think was a good throw isn’t any more. I played with him for five years and the death stare he used to give me as a player isn’t half as bad as the one he gives me as a coach. He just demands excellence.’
This is all to make training more difficult than a match. If you can throw a ball with a boxing glove, you can throw it with both hands free on a Saturday.
For ball- carriers on Tuesdays, there is a brutal drill. Twenty minutes running up and down a set of stairs. Each of the eight steps is half a metre high. Oh, and when 19st 7lb Nathan Hughes does it, he is weighed down by a five-stone bag on his back.
‘You are running up stairs with high knees trying to get power through your legs and core,’ Hughes said. ‘It has paid off. During the games, you will see boys going into contact and not giving up when you get tackled.’
The tailored training does not stop there. This week, an England back- up player will pretend to be Ireland No 10 Johnny Sexton at training.
‘The coaches are clever how they tailor the sessions exactly to the threats Ireland pose,’ said George. ‘It is a very quick session and Eddie is always involved. It is free-flowing, there is no dead time — that is the key difference from anywhere else I have been. He is constantly putting us and our skill-set under pressure.’
Hughes said: ‘If Sexton is one of their threats one of the boys will “be” Sexton and we will put a lot of pressure on him.’
Man-management is vital too, for George in particular. All 16 of his England caps have come from the bench — no-one has waited longer for a Test start.
He is the ultimate finisher. ‘You look at Test rugby now — the games are lost and won in the last 20 minutes,’ he said.
‘You have to make sure you are ready to play at that intensity and increase it. There is pressure on us to add energy because the guys have been on the field for 50, 60 minutes when we come on.
‘Test rugby is brutal and they will be tired, so we try to make sure we lift the energy through our actions and our voices. Eddie puts a big emphasis on that, and then you have a clear role in the team.’
Watch the England team after the anthem on Saturday. They will wrestle each other for a few seconds — a quick ‘ shoulder pummelling’, as George calls it — to flick the mental and physical switch. Then the game takes care of itself. Train harder than the match and it should be relatively easy.
Afterwards it could be time for a song. England wing Jonny May has been tasked with coming up with music and lyrics (his mother taught Ed Sheeran to play the guitar), a perfect task for a flyer with an eccentric manner.
The tune is a work in progress and will only be sung in victory. These players are not satisfied. They want back-to-back Grand Slams, a tilt at greatness. After all this hard work, that will be well worth celebrating.