Kids game in Leeds turning point for England

Stuart Lancaster’s first act as interim head coach was to gather his troops in Leeds, to cleanse them of the World Cup and to send them into the future emboldened by his message of team spirit, hard work and togetherness.

In the bowels of Twickenham last Saturday night, in the aftermath of a systematic destruction of Ireland that saw them finish second in the Six Nations with four wins, those five days in late January were still being revered as pivotal in the team’s transformation.

From the coach’s perspective, it gave Lancaster the belief that his players were ready for change and for a new dawn.

From the players’ perspective, it helped remind them of why playing for their country is something to be immensely proud of.

A case in point is Ben Youngs, who has gone through an awkward personal journey in recent weeks as his very public loss of form was played out against the backdrop of an England team on an upward trajectory.

But his quick tap-penalty and try that finished off Ireland, brought him back into the headlines for all the right reasons.

And he was quick to acknowledge the effect that week-long boot camp in Leeds had on him and the squad.

“When we got back to our clubs in October we tried to put the World Cup behind us, but obviously you’re always curious as to how it’s going to be when we turned up at camp,” said the Leicester scrum-half.

“But Stuart just presented it to us, he said these are the areas we need to work on, this is what went wrong at the World Cup and this is how we want the culture to be and the squad to be.

“And everyone just bought into it. Because it’s simple really. You work hard for each other, you work hard yourself and you strive to be the best, Ultimately, if everybody is pulling their weight and pulling in the right direction, and we’re honest and humble, then that is what it’s all about.

“From that first meeting, that first day, everyone was charging about and working hard and everything naturally fell into place.

“As soon as the guys started buying into it, the whole thing had a domino effect.

“All the players have been open, we’ve got the leadership group which I’m a part of, but everyone’s got a voice and that’s why the culture has been so good.

“Everyone has bought into the culture, bought into the philosophies that Stuart and Graham (Rowntree) have brought in and, hopefully, that’s shown as a result.”

Lancaster brought in guest speakers from the world of sport, most notably Jamie Peacock, Kevin Sinfield and Gary Neville, to impart to his players what it meant to play for their country.

Five full-blooded performances later and there can be no question that the process had the desired effect.

“We’ve come a long way from the team get-together at a Yorkshire Two club in Leeds,” said Lancaster of their base at West Park Bramhope. “The idea behind that week was to get the players understanding that we were all going to work hard for each other.

“We had three groups of players; some from the World Cup, some new players, and some coming back. They all had to fit in as one team.

“There was one moment when I knew it was coming together. It was a community coaching session with some youngsters from Yorkshire and we needed eight players to run it.

“Someone said to me ‘you’ll do well to get eight’. But then Dylan Hartley came up to me and said: ‘we’ve got a problem... there’s 24 of us’.

“I knew then. And by the end of that week the message had got through and we knew that we had a pretty good idea what direction we were going in.”

Having convinced the public of his credentials with four wins from five, Lancaster now has to persuade the Rugby Football Union that he is the right man to continue the rebuilding job.

Nick Mallett, the leading external candidate, almost conceded the job with his comments over the weekend, but he still ticks the boxes of an experienced international coach that the governing body say they are seeking.

Lancaster has made the most of his first experience and could not have done any more to bridge that gap. He has the backing of the players, including Youngs, for whom redemption was sweet on Saturday.

Youngs would have been forgiven for hitting back at those who had criticised him for his lack of form as Lee Dickson took hold of the No 9 shirt.

But the classy Leicester half-back remained dignified in the wake of his try-scoring turn from the replacements’ bench.

“To score is always special,” he said of his 74th-minute try. “It means a lot to me. I’m a competitive sportsman, I want to play, I want to start, and when you come on you want to do well, so obviously there was a lot of emotion going into it.

“It’s been frustrating for me so it’s nice to make an impact. It’s been a good learning curve, seeing what I need to learn from, what I need to develop.”

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