Brendan Gallagher’s verdict on England: Stuart Lancaster’s tough love is paying off

Danny CareA little bit of faith, albeit combined with tough love, can go a long way in sport as Stuart Lancaster is currently proving with this rapidly emerging England team who are beginning to excite the Twickenham faithful.
Just about the first thing Lancaster did when taking over in England’s hour of need two years ago was to axe after a number of alcohol related incidents, the same Danny Care who lasered onto ‘s pass in the second half yesterday and went diving joyfully under the posts for possibly the try of the tournament thus far.
Strangely the two incidents are closely connected.
Lancaster wouldn’t have made that decision over Care lightly, for all sorts of reasons. Care was one of his proteges at the Leeds academy and was exactly the kind of passionate committed player, nearing his pomp, who he wanted to fill his England teams with. But there was a bigger issue at stake, namely the absolute need to buy into a set of standards on and off the field that Lancaster expected at all times from those privileged to wear the England shirt.
So Care was banished from the England camp for the 2012 Six Nations but vitally not dismissed entirely from Lancaster’s thoughts.
In conjunction with the correct rehab was organised and the player – but more importantly the individual – was kept in the loop and assured that if stuck with it there was still hope.
The Quins scrum-half has returned and battled his way back into the team and yesterday, even when not at his very best, Lancaster continued to keep faith because he knew Care is exactly the kind of player to produce a match-winning moment in such a close encounter.
Lancaster’s modus operandi can be seen everywhere in this team. was by no means the obvious choice as captain when he first took over and as recently as October, in the lead up to the autumn internationals, some were still questioning that choice.
During his first season in charge Robshaw, by his own admission, got a couple of decisions wrong at the end of big matches and the chattering classes have constantly questioned whether he is truly a Test openside. Again Lancaster has backed his man and Robshaw has replied with one top quality performance after another.
Mike Brown is another and I’m not just picking on Quins players here. Brown is now a fully fledged world class full-back but for a while he was ‘Mr Angry’ who had been discarded prematurely after England’s controversial tour to in 2008.
Even when he was recalled to the squad he wasn’t entirely happy with being pressed into service as an emergency wing but he was told in no uncertain terms that if his form with Quins warranted selection at full-back for England it would happen. And it did.
I could go on. wasn’t exactly a name on everybody’s lips two years ago when Lancaster cast him into the fray and initially he mixed the naive with the promising but the England boss kept faith and yesterday the young giant must have been close to pipping Brown to MoM honours, his tap tackle on Dave Kearney at the death ensuring England’s win.
When the boss believes in you to that extent you will always go the extra yard as a player.
has been through the mill, has he ever, much of it self-inflicted, and it could have been curtains last after his dismissal in the final and ejection from the Lions squad. Instead Lancaster chose to treat the Northampton hooker like a grown-up and take him on trust. Yesterday Hartley was faultless with his line-out throwing and put in a massive shift in the front row to shore up a scrum that creaked on occasions.
Sometimes Lancaster’s earnest talk of the England rugby family and all the virtues he expects from his troops and the legacy they inherit from those who have gone can totter on the edge of Californian psychobabble.
But the proof of the pudding is increasingly in the eating, his holistic approach is working. He is a disciplinarian but is far from sanctimonious and is beginning to create that distinctive England culture he has always dreamed of.
There have been a few guffaws recently at the introduction of the Harrison VC award for England’s top defensive player in every match in honour of the England prop who was killed in action during World War 1 and there was further debate this week when he announced the England would be stage a team walk through the West Car park before yesterday’s match. It’s all a bit left field but England fans should keep the faith.
It’s working.

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