Aggression, speed and Burling’s ‘A’ game: How Kiwis claimed Auld Mug
➤ New Zealand make most of home conditions and beat Italians Luna Rossa 7-3 to win America’s Cup for fourth time
The raw materials
New Zealand have now claimed the America’s Cup for the fourth time since 1995 – that is four out of the past seven. Given Great Britain have not been able to win one since losing the first in 1851, the Kiwis could be accused of being greedy.
That said, it should hardly be a surprise that in a two-horse race, the winner tends to have the faster horse. New Zealand may not have clocked the 60knots they were rumoured to be clocking in practice, but the wind never really blew that hard so we cannot be sure what they might have been capable of.
Even in light airs, though, which were meant to be challenger Luna Rossa’s big strength, New Zealand, with their smaller foils, had the better boat speed.
The Italians, with larger foils, were quicker in manoeuvres and able to stay competitive as long as they won the starts, as they could keep tacking on their rivals and push them around, or create disturbance. In this foiling class the disturbed air or “gas” created by these boats means that even with better boat speed, it is virtually impossible to pass the boat in front.
But if New Zealand won the start, or if Luna Rossa made a mistake, it was game over, particularly once the wind strength rose above 12-13 knots.
Luck of the wind
The wind shifted on Monday, and so did the momentum of the match. Whereas last week, with narrow race courses and a consistent light breeze, it was extremely difficult to pass, now New Zealand were able to take advantage of the shifts to split and find better pressure elsewhere on the course, and sail in undisturbed airs.
New Zealand were also more aggressive with their sail choices. They passed Luna Rossa in both races on Monday, including the bizarre eighth race when first they and then the Italians fell off their foils and struggled to get back up again. On Tuesday, on the stadium course, New Zealand again profited from a right shift on the penultimate leg to win and move to match point.
Brilliance of Burling
Monday was moving day in other ways, too. Peter Burling found his “A” game. In the words of three-time America’s Cup sailor Carl Whiting, the New Zealand helmsman became much more aggressive.
“In earlier races they were more subdued,” Whiting told stuff.co.nz. “Maybe it was rust from a lack of racing, or nerves. Regardless, they [New Zealand] started sailing that boat with the confidence and aggression it deserves.
“There was a noticeable development in how they were attacking the day, with more aggressive sail calls, confident tactics and a determination to take the race to the Italians and give nothing away.
“Burling was driving the boat like he stole it, and that’s what needed to happen.”
Home advantage
There is a reason the America’s Cup has been won by the defenders 30 times in 36 Cups. The odds are generally stacked in their favour, certainly if they choose them to be.
New Zealand have been fair, but nevertheless, the defenders set the class rules – which in a brand new class is certainly an advantage. It stands to reason that every decision the defenders take will be in selfinterest.
They choose the venue; they know that venue intimately; they choose the challenger of record; they are guaranteed a spot in the final; they can watch the challenger series and analyse the boats and their tactics and speeds through manoeuvres.
There is also the fact that due to Covid-19, the world series events in Cagliari and Portsmouth last year were cancelled, meaning even less opportunity for the challengers to size each other up and learn. It was certainly not intended as an excuse for their failure to progress.
But as Sir Ben Ainslie said in The Daily Telegraph last month, following the exit of Team Ineos UK: “In some ways we shouldn’t be surprised that we now have the challenger of record, Luna Rossa, joining the defender in the Cup match itself. Their understanding of that new concept better prepared them to develop a faster package across the wind range and they stepped up their performance on the water to match.”
When Anthony Watson was 14, he asked his father, Duncan, for an iphone, a request that was flatly refused. At this point most teenagers would slam their bedroom door and bemoan the cosmic injustice of the universe.
Watson, however, plotted a different path. He started importing sports clothes from China and selling them to his friends. Within six months, he was able to proudly walk into the kitchen with a gleaming new iphone in hand.
“It belittled me, but at the same time you had to be proud of his resourcefulness,” Duncan tells The Daily Telegraph. “He has always been very single-minded, very motivated.”
That commercial instinct remains today. Watson is now investing in himself as the business. If his performance is the product, then there is a team behind it, from his immediate family and support network at Bath, to his mental skills coach Don Macpherson and sprint coach Jonas Dodoo. Their association with Watson goes back several years.
“I saw him develop from someone who was arrogant of his skill-set, who did not know how good he could be, to someone who treats himself like a business and invests a lot of his income back into his own therapy, his health, his team to support him,” Dodoo says. “That’s the mark of an elite athlete.”
Right now, his share price has never been higher. A man-of-thematch performance against France further established his credentials to retain his place in the Lions back three. Yet his stock has not always followed a linear trajectory. It was three years to the day yesterday that Watson tore his Achilles tendon in a Six Nations match against Ireland. Later that year, he tore the same tendon, meaning he would spend 13 months on the sidelines.
Achilles injuries are the stuff of nightmares for players built for high speed and agility such as Watson. One study in the NFL showed a third of players never played again after tearing their Achilles tendon, as they cannot regain their explosive pace. This was the fear looming in Watson’s mind, particularly with the World Cup around the corner.
As soon as the scan results came in, Watson called Macpherson, who says: “I remember his words. He said, ‘We have worked on the tools, I know what the tools are, if I need any help I will get back to you’.
“I monitored from a distance because I knew Team Anthony was pretty good. I would say Alyse, his partner, was the main mind coach. She was fantastic. Credit to Anthony’s dad Duncan, too. He is no slouch when it comes to mind coaching.”
If Alyse offered the shoulder to cry on, then Duncan provides the kick up the backside. “I remember the first time he called after the injury and he was down,” Duncan says. “Typical father, I told him to accept it and work towards getting back.” His mother, Vivian, and brothers, Marcus and Callum, also played an important role.
Recovering from one Achilles tear is one thing. Coming back from a second is another. This is where Macpherson started working more closely with Watson again. “He would have heard his own monkey mind chattering away,” says Macpherson, author of the book How to Master Your Monkey Mind.
“Especially when the Achilles went a second time, he would have heard, ‘Is this ever going to be right? Will I have lost a yard of speed? Will I still be able to turn on it?’.”
Their work focused on rebuilding the trust between brain and body. Then Macpherson provided Watson with a voice file called Turn the Lights Up. “If you have not played for a while, the brain cells responsible for the silky skills fade,” Macpherson says. “It is like a dimmer switch. They are still there, but the lights do down. Through a lot of work, he got hold of the dimmer switch and turned it back it up.”
Meanwhile Dodoo, through his Speedworks Training organisation, started working on Watson’s running technique. “With a race car like Anthony, his dashboard has to all be green,” Dodoo said. “Once he has a red, he has to know how to sort them himself. We worked on key technical things on how he attacks the ground with his foot and how he creates pretension in his body.”
By the time the World Cup came around, Watson was in “the shape of his life” according to Dodoo, while Stuart Hooper, Bath’s director of rugby, confirmed he was running at the same speed as before his injury. Watson was not satisfied with just returning to where he was and has continued to work with Dodoo, through an app called Binary Sports.
The next voice file he received from Macpherson was called Lights Brighter Than Ever. “That was his way of saying I am back, but I need more,” Macpherson says. Together they worked on developing what they called “Senna Brain”.
“Ayrton Senna said his brain was two-tenths of a second ahead of his body,” Macpherson says. “Anthony said I want to be two-tenths of a second ahead of the play so I am ready to pounce like a jungle cat.”