England fluffed their lines. Ireland showed their true colours. France and Wales continued to be consistently inconsistent. Italy didn’t deserve the wooden spoon but then neither did Scotland. All in all it was a rip-roaring 2011 RBS 6 Nations. But now that has been put to bed the spotlight switches immediately back to club competition with the Aviva Premiership, Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup all drawing to their grand finales.
Yet one player who’s continued to excel at club level and hammer hard on the door of the international set up throughout February and March has been Harlequins’ flanker and captain Chris Robshaw. The 24-year-old was frequently drafted into Martin Johnson’s elite player set-up yet narrowly missed out on a test appearance to add to his solitary cap earned against Argentina in Salta two years ago.
Nevertheless, the 2009 Guinness Premiership Player of the Year – who has drawn comparisons with 2003 World Cup-winning No6 Richard Hill from ex-pro Will Greenwood – has been instrumental in a rollercoaster season for the Twickenham Stoop residents. Director of Rugby Conor O’Shea and his team have their sights firmly set on the play-off places after being knocked out of the LV= Cup by Newcastle Falcons at the semi-finals but have the added incentive of an Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final against fierce rivals London Wasps to whet the appetite.
Sport.co.uk took the opportunity to wonder into the shadows cast by Twickenham Stadium on the home of Harlequins RFC to discuss dress sense, Mohawks, wingmen, juggling, stand-up comedy and, not forgetting, rugby with the Redhill-born Robshaw.
Hi Chris. You’re not updating your Twitter feed on your phone there are you?
No, no. Sorry, I’m all yours.
So we are here for the launch of the partnership between Harlequins Rugby Club and clothing label Duchamp. Part of the credit for this campaign mentions “vibrant Italian made satin stripe shirts”, “wonderful silk ties” and “hand crafted cufflinks”. Is this a rugby lad’s normal sort of attire?
Yeah, exactly. When you get dressed up for dinner it’s always nice to make an effort. The shirts are very stylish and smooth and if a fan wants to come a bit smarter it’s nice to see something a bit more formal in the Quins’ famous quarters. We were up in Newcastle and to see fans around the country wearing the shirts was quite special.
It’s all very highbrow. So who’s the best and worst dressed at Quins?
The best dresser…Ugo [Monye] likes to think he’s quite a sharp dresser but he comes out with weird stuff every now and then. Worst dresser – we’ve got a couple to be fair – Nick Easter has a couple of weird items…Ceri Jones; it tends to be the forwards. The front five, on average, tend to be the worst dressed. They like the jeans with the running trainer. For some reason I think they find that’s quite fashionable.
We spotted a couple of players styling Mohawks earlier. Ugo had one and Joe Marler strolled through with a garish orange-red one. What’s that about?
Yeah I think one of Joe’s friends is a hairdresser and has a company. He’s set the trend and it’s what we do. We come here, groom each other’s hair and make each other look nice for the weekend. I think it’s a Sky game [Harlequins v Newcastle Falcons last weekend] so they want to make sure they look nice and sharp.
Alright. Enough about fashion, let’s talk about rugby. Quins have had an interesting campaign this season. After starting well at home, but hopeless away the New Year saw a turn around and place among the top four. You’re now back in 7th. What have you made of it all?
Like you’ve said at the beginning of the year we were playing some attractive rugby and the sun was shining but unfortunately our discipline has been a key issue throughout the year and especially in those early games. We were up and around potentially winning games but our discipline cost us and we ended up being on the narrow side of losses. Toward that middle area we sorted it out and were on the narrow side of wins.
Unfortunately we have been hit hard by injuries but it’s part of the game; it’s a contact sport and injuries happen. It’s about how the squad can adapt and unfortunately it hasn’t happened in the last few games. I put it down to myself, down to player management and controlling the game in certain situations. We need to do that better and possibly have an alternative method to say if our Plan A doesn’t work, what else are we going to do? Hopefully we can sort that out in our next matches.
As captain for this season how has your involvement changed? Are you still mixing it with the boys?
It’s very easy to go the other way and completely change as a person. You have to go the other way and try to keep the pressure outside. Obviously the pressure affects you a bit more if your head’s on the line. As a captain I’ve just got to keep going out there and playing my own game and try to keep that enthusiasm in the guys.
We play such an attractive and exciting brand of rugby where if we lose that we probably lose a big edge to our game. It’s nice to see that back in our game. We’ve had a good week of focusing on us – thinking about what got us to the semi-final of the LV= Cup and quarters of the Amlin Challenge Cup – and saying if we get quick ball, if we get tempo in our game we can blow most teams away. If we just keep our discipline we should be a good side.
You speak of improving discipline but are there any punishments you serve out behind the scenes? Perhaps buying a round or doing forfeits…
The ultimate penalty is you get dropped. That’s the biggest one. Every now and then you might do a bit of extra fitness if you keep doing the same offence. It’s more an issue that you’re letting the team down and giving the game away for giving silly penalties away. I’m guilty of it myself. I can’t be pointing fingers when I’m doing it. It’s about addressing it individually and asking yourself if you have that mental focus to correct your errors; thinking if I just got back half a yard then it just plays on. There are so many great kickers in this league who can score 55 metres out from your try line and punish you.
Quins have been at the forefront of implementing some alternative ideas this season, for example with playing your LV= Cup match with London Wasps in the Middle East. We’ve also read the players have been going to stand-up comedy lessons. What’s the thinking behind that?
I actually missed that one but I’ll be at the next one. It’s just about taking people out of their comfort zones and getting them to adapt to different situations. That’s ultimately what rugby’s about; when you go away from home and the crowd’s abusing you, it’s raining and things aren’t going your way, are you comfortable and can you adapt to feel at ease with the people around you and keep a clear head?
Ian Bell does a lot of work on that. He’s our management consultant and I speak to him about the captaincy. Ultimately it’s about being comfortable in different environments. If you can’t say something to someone’s face within a squad then it’s not going to be great when you’re going through it on the weekend, when you need to know if the guy next to you is going to stand up and be counted and fight with you. These things are valuable to the squad.
Have you heard any good material? Got any one-liners up your sleeve?
I’m going to have to get practicing. I heard Nick Evans and Tom Guest were quite good. Joe Gray wasn’t great I don’t think.
Any jokes you can share with us?
I think they were quite rude…
Oh we like rude at Sport.co.uk. That’s fine…
If I say it rude I’ll get in trouble. I’m sure you can find clips of it online.
Along with the stand-up we noticed the players have been doing juggling practice [according to Ceri Jones] and noticed on your twitter account you’ve been doing some bikram yoga… It’s all very alternative. Is this all part of Conor O’Shea’s grand plans?
The juggling and stuff like that, they’re all for visual skills and getting people comfortable with the ball. We do a lot of visual work at Surrey Sports Park at Guilford University with specialists to get people to react quicker. That’s just about hand-eye coordination.
As for myself and the bikram yoga, I’ve had busted knees in the past and done my ACL and every now and then I get a sore back and hamstrings. It’s one of those alternative things you sometimes have to do extra work to keep yourself fresh and flexible. Our strength and conditioning guys recommended the yoga to me and Conor brought in the visualisation skills.
Speaking of Conor O’Shea [Director of Rugby], following the league defeat to Newcastle Falcons he said Quins have little or no chance of making the play-offs. How do you respond to that?
I stand by my boss really. We built that game up and felt we weren’t making the most of our away matches. We weren’t getting the bonus point victories but the best teams in the league do. If you look at Leicester over the years even if they don’t perform at their best they still grind out wins. As a team if you want to aspire to be the best out there you’ve got to really push yourself. We knew going up to Newcastle if we could win that game we’d be right back in the mix but unfortunately it went the other way and we got beaten severely. But in the league it’s so tight with a win putting you right up there and a loss sending you all the way down to 8th. It’s going to go right down to the wire. I don’t want to say it’s impossible but we have left ourselves with a lot to do now. We’ll have to win all our games and expect someone to do us a favour and help us out.
Or perhaps it’s a bit of reverse psychology to take the pressure off...
Well you never know, you never know. Coaches tactic, eh?
You’re now in your fourth year playing professionally with Harlequins, having amassed over 75 appearances. But how did you first get into rugby?
I’ve been playing rugby as long as I can remember. I’ve always loved my sport and then in my Lower 6th at Millfield School, at about 17, I was scouted by Tony Russ, Harlequins’ Academy Manager, who asked me to come down for a trial in the holidays. He signed me up to the school boys scholarship. I think I was on crutches for about a year of my first three years with various broken things in my lower body. But they were really good to me and looked after me. It probably helped me to develop my upper body and put size on.
Have you ever contemplated anything other than rugby?
I think I always wanted to be in sport. Obviously it would have been nice to go to university and be with your friends but how many people get an opportunity like this to be a professional rugby player. I’ve made some great friends and great contacts in the process.
Also you’ve probably got a career in juggling and stand-up comedy to look forward to…
[Laughs] Exactly. So if in doubt I can go to work with those.
You were part of the England U21 Grand Slam Champions of 2006. You starred alongside some recognisable names including Tom Croft, James Haskell, Dyland Hartley, Ben Foden and Toby Flood. Do you think back then the wheels were put in motion for the success England are enjoying today?
Yeah I think so. At that young age there’s not the same kind of pressure on you and you learn the basic skills of handling and passing that England have shown in this tournament. They’re taking those skills through from back then with the offloading and width to their game. It’s so much more dangerous for the defending side when the opposition have eight forwards who can all carry the ball, offload and pass in the tackle and a back line that can run superb lines, cutting them to bits. Even at the moment the U20s are doing a similar thing. It’s great for English rugby that they can keep turning out great international players at such a young age.
In that squad could you tell the players were capable of going onto bigger and better?
Yes you could see these guys who had already played quite a lot of Premiership rugby already and you thought even at that age they were a special talent. There were several more who’ve gone on to impress and it showed the strength of the squad and unity they had not only on the pitch as they enjoyed each others company off it. We all went for a couple beers together and it was a great environment to be in. When you’re in more enjoyable environments like the England squad are at the moment your better side of rugby tends to come out and that shows on the pitch.
Were there any players back then you could single out that you’ve noticed a gigantic improvement in?
Toby Flood. He was always a special player but in the last year or so I think he’s really stepped up his game and turned into a talented player. Also Ben Foden who was a scrum half back then battling with Danny Care and you now see them both in the mix and doing so well.
Ahead of the Scotland match you, along with team-mate Joe Marler, were drafted in to train with the elite squad. Can you describe how the week went?
Whenever you train with them it’s always pretty full on. Tuesday’s always when you do the bulk of the work. It was nice. You can actually see the fun and enjoyment they’re having. They’re really enjoying their rugby which is lovely to see and that showed on the weekend against France. They’re really playing for each other and want to raise their standards and drive themselves to be the best team out there. There is definite belief they can challenge the majority of teams out there.
You would have spent plenty of time under the watchful gaze and furrowed brow of Martin Johnson. What’s he like on the training field?
He’s got his key coaches of Brian Smith, John Wells and the rest but he overviews it all and is always out there on the training field giving his input here and there. He’s a man who’s played such a high standard of rugby and knows what you have to do to win games and World Cups. He was at Leicester for God knows how many years so he’s got winning born in him – and that’s starting to breed throughout the team. It’s nice to see.
A tricky question: at the beginning of the season you mentioned your aim was to break into the national team with the World Cup a major personal objective. So how do you feel you can stake your claim ahead of all the other flanker options for England ahead of the competition in New Zealand?
[Sigh] Erm…It’s a good question. With the current England side and everyone playing so well [ahead of the Ireland match], with Lewis Moody coming back and the likes of Hendre Fourie on the fringes it’s just about keeping performing and improving as a player. I can’t just be happy with where I am. I keep needing to push forward and working on the little areas of my game; the aspects that a casual spectator wouldn’t notice such as tightness in a maul and key features of how a team perform. Fingers crossed Harlequins win something this year and that always helps.
So finally: of all those flankers – Moody, Croft, Fourie, Haskell, Tom Wood, Joe Worsley and yourself - if you had to pick one to play at No6 alongside you who would it be?
Probably Tom Croft. If you look at what he’s done, he’s played for the British and Irish Lions now and is recognised as a key figure in the lineout and around the pitch.
And which two would you chose to face in the opposition? Which ones do you feel you could get the better of?
[Dodging the question] Whoever you play against you feel you can raise your game. I remember playing against Rocky Elsom [of Australia] and thinking he’s probably the toughest opponent I’ve ever played against. Yet it makes you better as a player because you want to get one over on each other.
Lastly, who would you chose as your wingman on a boisterous night out?
Of those six…er…a night out with James Haskell is always quite eventful!
We could have written that as your answer before you even said it.
[Laughs]
Thank you very much for your time Chris. Best of luck with the rest of your season and we hope you make it on the plane to New Zealand this September.
No worries. Cheers, take care.
Duchamp are proud to announce an exciting new partnership with their local rugby team, the London Harlequins. The spirit of the Harlequin's colour and club history is an easy match for our bold, confident collection and we hope that our values will ring true with all Quins fans in this exclusive range of luxury Duchamp products.
From our vibrant Italian made satin stripe shirts to our wonderful silk ties made in the heart of Suffolk, England and the hand crafted cufflinks made by artisans, the Duchamp collection will bring some wonderful new items to adorn your wardrobe and keep you looking sharp and lively at your next match.
The Harlequins/Duchamp collection is now available to buy in the Harlequins store.