England Captaincy

After Owen Farrell stepped aside as England Captain in order to have a break and for the sake of his family, my phone has been pretty hot with calls asking me about my opinion and my experience during the eight years I captained England.

I have been thinking it through ever since, as it is a very difficult to give a simple answer.

In essence to captain England is a huge honour, obviously. With it come extra responsibilities and pressures, unsurprisingly. But the experience is intense and unrelenting and how you handle and respond to the pressure, in my mind, is determined by why you said yes to the position in the first place.

I cannot reply on behalf of Owen or any other captain of English sport, as I do not know why any of them said ‘yes’ to the invitation. I can only talk about my own reasons, experience and hence how I dealt with it.

When I put the phone down to Geoff Cooke all those years ago, having said ‘yes’ to his invitation to captain England, I can honestly say I sat down on a chair and thought ‘Sh*t!!!…..why the hell did I say yes’. I was in shock.

And then for the next few days I slowly worked out the ‘why’, in how I would captain England.

The foundation for me, was that it was all about trying to get the best out of the players and get the best for the players. I needed invest a huge amount of time and effort into getting to know the players, so that hopefully I would have an understanding of them, their lives and how to try to nurture the best out of them.

I remember going to visit the work colleagues of the key characters in the squad, as it was amateur at that time and we all had jobs. I wanted to find out as much as I could about them, and what they responded to and what their jobs entailed. I remember sitting talking to Rob Andrew’s boss and he asked me why I had come to see him. ‘To find out about Rob, what makes him tick, what are the pressures on him, how do England get the best out of him.’ He gave me a strange look and asked ‘Who sent you?’ “No one. I want to find out, for me!’

I had a file on every player. Family members, birthdays, notes from the calls I made with them.

I also had to understand that I would fight for the players with the RFU, and if that meant getting the sack, then so be it. I had to have the players best interests at heart, not mine! Now I am no saint, and I was far from perfect, but I wanted to look myself in the mirror each morning, and despite the numerous mistakes I had made and would make, I wanted to be able to look myself in the eye and know I was doing it for the right reason.

I remember so many arguments with the RFU about paying for player’s partners flights etc to away games, pointing out the expense lavished on the committee. Arguing for their expenses, arguing for recognition of the sacrifices they made, and god how they loathed me.

But my belief was that as captain, as the leader of those players, it was my duty to do all I could to deliver the best opportunities for them to win rugby matches. During my captaincy I had three committee members up against the wall during arguments – not something I am particularly proud of, but it shows the huge chasm there was between players and administrators, and my fury at how they viewed the players.

It is one thing to play for England, it is another level of media scrutiny to captain them. Sadly at twenty two years old I was not mature enough to understand the role of the media. I just read criticism of players, guys I was leading and did not react too well to that. In fact in an early press conference, I told the assembled media to all ‘f**k off’ due to their criticism of certain players. Not clever! Or fair looking back!

Personally, yes, there was a lot of criticism, and there is no doubt it hurt. My mindset in dealing with it was quite simple though. I had not said ‘yes’ to captaining England to be popular with the press, or to get glowing headlines and profile. I had said ‘yes’ to lead the players, and their opinion was all that counted. Easy to say and there were times that I struggled with the media onslaught. But I reminded myself that it was not about me, it was about the team, and what was best for them. My simple belief was that the only people who really knew what you were as Captain were the players. No one else was there, in the build-up to the games, in the team rooms, in the changing room, on the pitch. So, all the exterior noise, was just that – exterior noise. As long as you had strong characters within the squad who would tell you honestly what they thought, and feedback on your leadership, then the outside noise was irrelevant.

I am very aware that I was far from perfect as England captain. I had many flaws and made many mistakes. But I do believe that for the vast, vast majority of those eight years, my decisions were made with the best of the team and players in mind. That was my focus. I said ‘yes’ to leading them.

I did not say ‘yes’ to be popular, to be liked, to be famous. I said ‘yes’ solely to try and help play a part in ensuring we won rugby matches and we created the best environment to allow the squad to do that.

Hence as painful as the scrutiny was at times, and the criticism, I managed to stay focused on my goal. I have no idea what impact social media would have had on me, and that focus, and I am very relieved that I never had to find out.

It is an amazing privilege, and honour, that comes with a price, but I do believe the reason that you said ‘yes’ to captaining England in the first place, plays a huge role in how you manage to deal with the pressures and scrutiny that ensue.