There are two contrasting schools of thought following England’s grand victory over France on Saturday. According to John Mitchell, head coach of Red Roses, his nervous 43-42 victory was an ideal preparation for this year's World Cup. Also, as former England prostitute Brian Moore said in a post-match TV analysis, “If they were playing New Zealand, would they escape?”
Mitchell and Moore’s disappointment in the World Cup between them know a lot. The former is the head coach of the All Blacks in the semifinals of the 2003 Australian Men's Championship. Moore was part of England that the Kangaroos defeated in the 1991 final. They spend enough time in top football games to understand how to suddenly thwart the best plan and hopefully there is something bad that guarantees your Zilch.
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Related: Mitchell puts pressure on New Zealand and maintains England's World Cup focus
All we know is that the narrative surrounding the Red Rose has changed slightly over the weekend. It's still a very good team. Seven consecutive six-country champions won't happen by chance. The ledger has shown a defeat in the last 56 games. But totally indestructible? Something that is certain? Not Saturday's evidence.
Yes, they still won. Yes, the cowboy hat is fun. Yes, the excellent Zoe Aldcroft and Alex Matthews eventually dragged them to the end. But for anyone who competed in the last World Cup in New Zealand in 2022, they were uncomfortable with the echo of the ultimate failure of Black Fern. England should have moved from that frustrating disappointment, but if so, they still have a way to go.
Experienced Mitchell is specifically designed to ensure that this "so close and so far" pattern doesn't repeat itself. The team and coaches are building bonds and they blow up other families again. At first glance, you can prove that there is nothing significant to see here in terms of serious prophecies.
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However, this view does not necessarily take into account the two “p” words that are still hovering on this high-achieving squad. Stress and Psychology – leveraging the latter’s ability to cope with the former – is Red Rose’s greatest enemy and arguably more important than any opponent. When their competitors re-watch Saturday’s game, they may conclude that far from the parade team, this year’s World Cup may offer opportunities.
Because it's a more basic thing except for the failure to handle France's direct ball carrying and closing the threat in the second half. Let's call it the Rory McIlroy paradox. One minute, you smash it a few miles in the middle of the fairway, looking like a million dollars. Next, you will freeze mentally and pull it into the stream. When things start to go wrong, wrestling control can be easier said than done.
McIlroy won the Masters but didn't shoot four shots until the playoffs, with only nine holes. He admitted that he had competed with his luggage for years and was sometimes hard to deal with.
This Red Rose Squad is not very different. Among them they are in New Zealand or watch on TV - know the feeling of pure horror. Imagine they competed in the World Cup finals on the weekend, and as Moore observed, does New Zealand bring many opportunities to France? The visitors themselves are in a painful mood, but the next time they face England, they will do it with less phobia and get six attempts and feel the opponent's panic.
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GLIB's reaction is that Ellie Kildunne is expected to fit next time, and England, which scored 31-7 in one stage, will be neither static nor static and average as it is sometimes in the second half. However, again, it is difficult to ignore a certain level of self-doubt now. What if the biggest obstacle to the Red Rose ends up not New Zealand, France or Canada, but themselves? What if the uneasy fact remains as deadly as anyone else under the right pressure?
This reminds me of another World Cup, this time the men's version in 2003. Then, like now, England is the favorite. In the last game of the Six Nations that year, they went to Dublin and tore Ireland 42-6. That summer, they flew south for weeks, beating New Zealand and Australia. They can't get into the game better.
Then what happened? They did pack the swag, but unlike McIlroy, they were only in overtime. In the ecstasy, everyone is covered up on an unimaginable alternative. As Sir Clive Woodward admitted a few years ago, failure will keep him tracking for life. "I don't think I'm going to end up with a good person. I think there will be a pain and I'll do my best to get rid of it."
This time, expectations will be higher for a variety of reasons. It's OK, the Red Rose is expected to bring women's rugby to the masses and inspire the country, besides focusing on the main awards. They have everything they do, but the potential disruption will be huge.
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That's why theories about Saturday's narrow escape will increase their chances of claiming the Holy Grail are only half the story. Their main competitors may be galvanized and reactivate some of the inner demons. Suddenly, the World Cup doesn’t feel the carefree carnival, but it’s more like a nervous rope walk. Because when everything is online, England still has a tendency to swing. That's OK, the cowboy hat is the first two inches below, which is really important.
As expected, Friday's sales V Saracens Premier League was an exciting jingle, while the Sharks made a huge turn to establish themselves as the biggest threat to Bath, the Premiership title. Gloucester is also great at a bad Exeter home, and the season ends not quickly enough. Leicester won again, and the damage to Marcus Smith further added to Quinns's problem.
However, when this possibility exists to talk about the possibility of the Premier League, everything must be put on hold again, the Champions League semifinals. By the time the domestic season is finally completed, it will be mid-June, which will take nearly 9 months to decide the league championship of the 10 teams.
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Ben Youngs criticized the intermittent nature of the Premier League roster and the start of next season was not ideal. If everything is available, the plan is to start a new Premier League sport on a Thursday night with the Women's World Cup finals and the Ryder Cup in late September. The top priority these days is to minimize conflicts with men's international fixtures, but, again, it is not always felt that British club rugby offers itself the best chance.
Do you see the rarest statistics? All four Irish provinces have been defeated in the same round of the United Rugby Championship (in various fields of the championship) since 2015, while Munster lost to Cardiff and Leinster to defeat Scarlet 35-22. Leinster hosting Northampton in the Champions League semifinals this weekend may be a different story, but the Saints will be properly encouraged for their own optimistic weekend performance at home in Bristol. It will still go down as Northampton won one of the historical knockout rounds in Dublin, but if they can get some offensive momentum, they have the ability to get more Irish eyebrows.
John Mitchell was in charge of the All Blacks when he fell into the 2003 Rugby World Cup in the semifinal against Eddie Jones. "It's a tough win, like the Kangaroos can stand out against the All Blacks for a long time, and coach John Mitchell then worked hard to describe the nature and scale of the failure... "Our executions were poor, our Mitchell said, "We didn't have the victory we deserved," said Australia captain George Gregan. "Eddie talked mostly about fatigue. We did. It's a huge effort for everyone."
Sarah Rendell wrote that John Mitchell said a single-point victory against France at Twickenham was an ideal preparation for the Rugby World Cup.
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