White Gold

by Peter Burns

  Any thoughts that Wilkinson might have had about dropping a goal, however, were dashed when Dawson was collared by All Blacks flanker Marty Holah as the England scrum-half dug into the ruck in search of quick ball. On this occasion, though, Wilkinson showed his versatility and his ability to play the game in front of him. With the New Zealand defence fanning out to cover the danger, he spotted the lack of cover behind them, shaped for a drop-goal and then executed a delicate chip that floated the ball over the onrushing defenders. Before the All Blacks hooker Andrew Hore knew what was happening, Wilkinson had slipped past him and had regathered his chip. Twickenham exploded as he dived in under the posts. It was an incredible score.

  And it didn’t stop there. After another period of sustained pressure during which the England forwards and backs combined to progress relentlessly upfield, Wilkinson flicked the ball cleverly to Ben Cohen and the Northampton winger raced clear to score, celebrating the moment with a swan dive as he crossed the line. As Wilkinson added yet another conversion, England completed an astonishing fourteen-minute blitz in which they had scored twenty-one unanswered points to push them into a 31–14 lead. It looked as if the under-strength All Blacks were on the verge of humiliation... but the New Zealanders then roared back into contention.

  Lomu scored an even more impressive try than the one he picked up in the first half, crossing the whitewash after bullocking his way through challenges from Tindall, Cohen, Robinson and Johnson. Andrew Mehrtens, on for Spencer, converted and the veteran fly-half began to pull the strings commandingly. Prop Joe McDonnell almost scored but was held up by his opposite number, Vickery. But the black tide kept coming and with ten minutes to go, replacement scrum-half Danny Lee slipped the England defence to score, with Mehrtens again converting.

  The All Blacks were trailing by three points and, gathering the ball from the kick-off, continued to surge their way back downfield, hunting the winning score. And they almost got it. Howlett made a break and drew Jason Robinson, releasing full-back Ben Blair down the touchline. Ben Cohen had tracked the All Blacks’ sweeping attack from the opposite wing and he was the last man standing able to stop Blair. He timed his tackle to absolute perfection, slowing his run enough to ensure that Blair was forced to aim for the corner flag rather than trying to step inside Cohen, and it became a flat-out foot race. Just a few yards short of the line, Cohen leapt and collared Blair, bundling him into touch. It was a magnificent tackle that saved the game for England. ‘It’s my job to do that,’ said Cohen self-deprecatingly afterwards. ‘I wouldn’t have played for England again if I hadn’t made that tackle.’

  In the final few minutes New Zealand continued to batter the lines. They had one final chance with a line-out near England’s try-line, but Ben Kay read the placement of the ball and managed to get a hand to it, stealing possession. Wilkinson cleared their lines and Twickenham rocked with joy at the victory.

  *

  In the build-up to the Australia Test, Clive Woodward revealed a little secret at a press conference. He showed a video montage to highlight to the officials and the press what he considered to be blocking lines run by the All Blacks backs during set-plays. The material had been collected using a program called Prozone, which had been part of England’s video analysis for the previous two years. While the blocking moves were of concern to him and Phil Larder, what Woodward was actually doing was showing his rivals just how advanced their analysis was. ‘I wanted to highlight what the New Zealand backs were doing, but more importantly I wanted them to see that we had this new technology which could transform the way you approach a game.’

  Footage was gathered for Prozone from twenty cameras placed around the ground and showed the movement of players throughout the game, calculating their speeds and work rates, as well as monitoring the team’s defensive patterns. Ever since he had joined the back-room staff, Phil Larder had continually hammered home the importance of defence to any trophy-winning team – and demanded a 95 per cent successful tackle rate from each game. The program allowed Larder to easily map out the pitch with player positions, thereby facilitating clear and concise feedback that allowed him to explain various defensive systems, failings and opportunities to the players. Prozone allowed him to collate the information, analyse each player and send them individual statistical reports after every match.

  The players knew that with Prozone gathering information on their every move, there were absolutely no hiding places. ‘By 2002 we had used Prozone for two years,’ said Woodward. ‘It was being used by four or five Premiership football clubs. The biggest thing in coaching is in the debriefing after the match. This system allowed you to go way beyond what you do immediately after the game. You show could players clearly how much they were working and not working. From the moment they walked down that tunnel, we had them. We knew every step they made and how fast and how hard they were working. They knew it too. They called it Big Brother. I also wanted the rest of the rugby world to see that we had this technology which, when used well, could transform the way we analysed training and a match. I knew that twelve months out from the 2003 World Cup our rivals wouldn’t have time to implement it. We could analyse ourselves but more importantly we could analyse the opposition as never before.’

  While Woodward cites the main benefit of Prozone as being the ability to study the opposition better than ever before, his observation that the players and coaches could study themselves with greater insight is even more significant. As we have looked at with Carol Dweck’s theory of growth mindset and K. Anders Ericsson’s 10,000-hour rule – together showing that skill is coachable and that world-class standards can be achieved with thousands of hours of deliberate, dedicated practice – a further vital component to the development of skill is through feedback. And that was exactly what Prozone offered the coaches. Every aspect of each player’s game could be analysed, which gave the coaches specific, information-rich data on which to base their training sessions and how to improve the individual components within the team. Furthermore, it allowed Dave Reddin access to incredibly detailed statistics that he used to tailor individual fitness and biomechanics programmes. The value of Prozone, particularly as no other rugby country on the planet was using it, was inestimable.

  *

  The Wallabies arrived in London on the back of a loss to the Irish in Dublin, their first to the men from the Emerald Isle since 1968. They were a wounded animal, desperate to salvage some pride and to reclaim the Cook Cup, which had eluded their grasp since November 2000.

  Trevor Woodman, who had made such a good impression against New Zealand in both the scrum and in the loose, had to withdraw from the team with a minor neck injury and his place was taken by Jason Leonard, who would win his ninety-eighth cap.

  While Woodman’s absence and Leonard’s progress towards one hundred caps filled several inches of newspaper columns, it was nothing compared to Woodward’s decision to drop Lawrence Dallaglio to the bench for the first time in seven years – on an occasion that would have seen the No.8 claim his fiftieth cap. Just as Woodward had done with Neil Back the week before, he was making a statement that no player could rest on his laurels. ‘We pick on what we see, not reputation,’ said Woodward. Back returned as the open-side flanker, Moody was retained at No.6 and Richard Hill shuffled sideways into Dallaglio’s No.8 shirt.

  In the backs, Ben Cohen was selected on the wing just as he had been two years earlier before withdrawing after his father’s death. ‘Australia was the big game for me because of all that had happened,’ said Cohen. ‘I’d never played against them but I would have done had it not been for my father’s death. That chance was taken away from me. After the All Blacks game I spent an anxious couple of days waiting for the announcement of the team to face Australia. I didn’t tell Clive Woodward because I didn’t want him to be concerned about my emotional state. I kept my thoughts to myself but I was very relieved when I got the nod. It was the chance to lay a ghost to rest.’

  Forty-eight hours be
fore the Test match Cohen drove to Northampton to visit his father’s grave. He placed a photograph of his swan-dive score against the All Blacks on the gravestone, inscribed with the words: Dad, this one is for you.

  Australia made several changes to the team that had lost in Dublin and the side was packed full of World Cup winners and players who had tasted victory over the Lions. The forwards were menacing and the backline posed a threat in every position, with the likes of half-backs George Gregan and Stephen Larkham, Daniel Herbert in the centre, Matt Burke at full-back and the recently converted rugby league superstar Wendell Sailor on the wing.

  It would prove to be another thrilling match. Having moved into a ten-point leads thanks to Wilkinson’s boot and a coolly taken try by Cohen, which the winger celebrated with a point to the heavens, England were hit by an Australian blitz as the Wallabies scored twenty-five points in a seventeen-minute period on either side of half-time. After fifty-six minutes the home side were 31–19 down, with Elton Flatley crossing twice, followed by Sailor, but crucially they held their nerve and their shape. While the England forwards were dominant, the defence was surprisingly fragile at times and the tactical kicking of Wilkinson, Tindall and Greenwood was occasionally wayward, but their tenacity to keep fighting was hugely impressive.

  Standing in the shadow of their posts as Burke lined up the conversion of Sailor’s try, Johnson pulled his men together. ‘This is what great teams are made of,’ he said, ‘to come back from this.’

  Think Correctly Under Pressure. And that was exactly what they did. They were calm and controlled. They knew exactly what to do in each area of the pitch and they went about their work efficiently and effectively. ‘We dominated, we led, we were overhauled and we went behind – but we never panicked, we never lost our shape and we showed the Australians that this generation of England players competes until the final whistle,’ said Jason Robinson. ‘Martin Johnson kept the team focused, with one eye on the big electronic clock, one eye on the game plan. His message to the team was plain – if Australia can rack up points in no time, so can we. When you are behind and the clock is against you, it is easy to panic and stray from the game plan. We stuck to the task and, in doing so, staged a comeback that had never before been achieved against a team of the stature of Australia, the reigning world champions... It’s games like this that illustrate how far you have come as a team.’

  ‘Our ability to adapt, our knowledge of how to construct scores and win games was tested to the full,’ said Wilkinson. ‘Clive had been telling us it takes just twenty seconds to score. So we didn’t panic, we started chipping away at the gap with penalties, and then, when we were within striking distance of the win, we launched Ben Cohen for his second try.’ Cohen scored out wide, leaving a tricky conversion for Wilkinson to win the game. As the Wallabies gathered along the try-line, readying themselves to sprint out and try to put him off, Wilkinson collected his kicking tee and began his ritual. With the Larkham, Daniel Herbert in the centre, Matt Burke at full-back and the recently converted rugby league superstar Wendell Sailor on the wing.

  It would prove to be another thrilling match. Having moved into a ten-point leads thanks to Wilkinson’s boot and a coolly taken try by Cohen, which the winger celebrated with a point to the heavens, England were hit by an Australian blitz as the Wallabies scored twenty-five points in a seventeen-minute period on either side of half-time. After fifty-six minutes the home side were 31–19 down, with Elton Flatley crossing twice, followed by Sailor, but crucially they held their nerve and their shape. While the England forwards were dominant, the defence was surprisingly fragile at times and the tactical kicking of Wilkinson, Tindall and Greenwood was occasionally wayward, but their tenacity to keep fighting was hugely impressive.

  Standing in the shadow of their posts as Burke lined up the conversion of Sailor’s try, Johnson pulled his men together. ‘This is what great teams are made of,’ he said, ‘to come back from this.’

  Think Correctly Under Pressure. And that was exactly what they did. They were calm and controlled. They knew exactly what to do in each area of the pitch and they went about their work efficiently and effectively. ‘We dominated, we led, we were overhauled and we went behind – but we never panicked, we never lost our shape and we showed the Australians that this generation of England players competes until the final whistle,’ said Jason Robinson. ‘Martin Johnson kept the team focused, with one eye on the big electronic clock, one eye on the game plan. His message to the team was plain – if Australia can rack up points in no time, so can we. When you are behind and the clock is against you, it is easy to panic and stray from the game plan. We stuck to the task and, in doing so, staged a comeback that had never before been achieved against a team of the stature of Australia, the reigning world champions... It’s games like this that illustrate how far you have come as a team.’

  ‘Our ability to adapt, our knowledge of how to construct scores and win games was tested to the full,’ said Wilkinson. ‘Clive had been telling us it takes just twenty seconds to score. So we didn’t panic, we started chipping away at the gap with penalties, and then, when we were within striking distance of the win, we launched Ben Cohen for his second try.’ Cohen scored out wide, leaving a tricky conversion for Wilkinson to win the game. As the Wallabies gathered along the try-line, readying themselves to sprint out and try to put him off, Wilkinson collected his kicking tee and began his ritual. With the seam lined up to the centre of the posts, he stood two paces off to the right and eased himself into his comfortable crouch, hands lightly touching in front of him, his centre of gravity completely balanced. He glanced at a point between the posts, imagining the woman with the Coke can, then returned his eye to the ball. He exhaled, stepped forwards and struck. The ball boomed in the silent stadium and for a few moments he could hear it fizzing through the cold evening air before the sound of its flight was drowned out by an eruption of noise as euphoric England fans burst into life. The game was won, 32–31, and England retained the Cook Cup for the third game in a row, took their winning run against the Tri Nations teams up to seven and in doing so established the longest spell of dominance over Australia, and the whole southern hemisphere, in the history of the game.

  *

  Two down, one to go. South Africa arrived at Twickenham having lost to both France in Paris and Scotland in Edinburgh. They were in a deep slump, their Super 12 teams struggling domestically, their proud Springboks insipid and uninspiring. In less than a year they were due to face England in Perth in the most crucial game in their pool at the World Cup. They had to make an impact – but no one in the England camp had any expectation of what was coming their way.

  It was always going to be a brutal match. The Springboks have a tradition of huge physicality, but they took that to the edge at Twickenham.

  ‘We can all accept being boomed by Jonny Wilkinson or run over by Jonah Lomu or rucked out of the back by the French pack for being on the wrong side,’ said Matt Dawson. ‘That’s all part of the game. But the Boks went way beyond that.’

  Right from the kick-off the Springboks piled into the English players, digging knees into ribs during rucks, dropping sly punches off the ball, hitting with just their shoulders or with straight arms in the tackle. Things came to a head when lock Jannes Labuschagne was sent off after just twenty-two minutes for a late tackle on Wilkinson after the fly-half had made a clearance kick. The referee, Paddy O’Brien, had no option but to show Labuschagne a red card and to try to settle the rising tide of violence. While the sending-off stopped some of the more overt violence, it did not extinguish it entirely. Springbok captain Corne Krige was particularly culpable as he barrelled around the pitch like a one-man wrecking ball, successfully taking out both Jason Robinson and Richard Hill with straight-arm challenges. Wilkinson and Lewis Moody were forced from the field with injury before the end and Robinson discovered after the match that he had a perforated eardrum after being kicked in the head. But England had come through the brutal
trial and with magnificent effect. As the weary, bloodied figures in white trooped off the field, Twickenham stood in admiration not just at the astonishing 53–3 scoreline but at a sensational three weeks that had witnessed rugby at its coruscating best. Phil Larder would have been disappointed that the try-line had been breached so easily against New Zealand and Australia, but it had been watertight against the Springboks and they had conceded just five penalties. England had scored twelve tries that autumn and the Total Rugby played by every man who represented England over those three weekends had Woodward grinning like a Cheshire cat. What was significant, however, was that the players and the management didn’t feel satisfied.

  ‘Our general improvement was obvious from the 2002 autumn campaign,’ said Dallaglio. ‘We won all three matches and yet didn’t feel like we had done anything fantastic.’

  ‘You couldn’t forget,’ said Hill, ‘that we had home advantage and played them at the end of their seasons. Some of their top players weren’t available and the first two wins had been by narrow margins. We knew we were not the finished article.’

  On 18 December 2002, for the first time in rugby history, England were ranked No.1 in the Zurich world rankings. The challenge now was to stay there.

  *

  On 27 January 2003 the squad gathered for their first session at Pennyhill Park to begin their preparations for the Six Nations.

  Woodward set his stall out early to the squad. The Grand Slam had eluded them for five campaigns. If they were serious about winning the World Cup they had to carry the momentum from the autumn into the Six Nations and they had to prove that they were the best team in the northern hemisphere. They had to win the Grand Slam.