NOW BREAK THE RECORD & RULE THE WORLD
MATT DAWSON ON IRELAND V ENGLAND
DYLAN HARTLEY insists England will today make rugby history – providing they want it more than Ireland want to spoil their party.
The captain knows small margins will determine whether his team completes back-to-back Grand Slams – or the Irish deny them both that and a world-record 19th straight win.
He also knows from bitter experience that given the chance to rain on England’s parade, Celtic teams are able to summon up superhuman displays.
Which is why, on the eve of battle, he stood in front of his players and demanded from them that they squeeze every ounce of desire from their being.
Hartley said: “My message was that our motivation has to be greater; to kick on and to win the Grand Slam.
“That motivation, greater to than me, upsettingis
team’s party. We’re ready as a team to take the next step, the next challenge. “But whether we do is completely up to us, emotionally.” Rewind to 2001 when England went from cock of the walk to feather dusters, victims of Ireland’s passion play at the old Lansdowne Road.
Or to 2011 in the Aviva Stadium, when England again pitched up with the title already won and failed utterly to match the desire of the men in green. Hartley played that day, as he did in Cardiff in 2013 when another Slam was ripped from England’s grasp by a Wales side far better equipped for the emotional battle. He refers to those wasted opportunities as “dirty” feelings, adanother mitting of 2011: “I didn’t do what I needed to be right for that game.”
So a skipper who has not lost a single match when leading his country will take nothing for granted this evening.
Eddie Jones says successive Grand Slams would constitute greatness – and Will Carling (circle), the last England captain to double-up, texted Hartley this week to “tell me how great he was”.
But Hartley is having none of it. “Tactically, we are so clear,” he said. “And combinations and relationships couldn’t be any better.
“But we need now to emotionally get it right.
“We embrace and enjoy the occasion in the build-up, but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty of the game we have to stay in that moment and not worry about the result.
“Look after those moments for 80 minutes and things will take care of themselves.”
Sounds simple. History suggests it’s anything but.