Building the Perfect Six Nations Player: Chris Robshaw picks the leader who lets his team ‘take it forward’
Former England captain Chris Robshaw picks his leader in our Perfect Player series.
What would the Perfect Six Nations Player look like? Planet Rugby have teamed up with Two Cents Rugby, eToro and a host of former players and coaches to answer that question.
This six-part series is brought to you by eToro, the official investing and trading partner of Premiership Rugby, where we dive into the different attributes players bring to a team and head to the lab to piece together the perfect Six Nations player, getting insight from some of rugby’s top minds.
Just like you can build your ideal investing portfolio on eToro, we will combine attributes like kicking, power, speed, defence, and leadership into something unstoppable on the rugby field.
Leadership is next up, and we have recruited the help of former England and Harlequins captain Chris Robshaw.
Connection between leadership and success
“Leadership is important in all sports but I think in rugby in particular there are so many variables in the game. There are so many different positions, different characteristics, different characters,” Robshaw said as he delved into a fascinating aspect of the game.
“But at the end of day, you’re all trying to pull in the same direction and get the same outcome, aren’t you? And we all have a job to play in that. There are things you might be good at with your leadership style and manner. But in a different situation, someone else in that leadership group (will be better) so…”
He added: “People always see leadership and captaincy, they only ever think it’s a one person thing. But there’s such a kind of core group around that as it can be a lonely place.
“You look at any rugby side, you’ve probably got a front-row leader who is leading the scrum, a lineout leader, you might even have a pack leader. Then you’ve got the defence leaders, attack leaders, maybe the back-field as well.
“Then you all kind of dip in and then of course, that captain at the top is making that final decision. But you’ve got to trust the squad around you as well and those who have been put in those roles.”
Off the field duties
Robshaw was asked by Two Cents about the responsibilities of a captain not just on the field but off it and agreed wholeheartedly it’s very much a part of the leadership role.
“There’s so much of that,” he continued. “There’s a lot of presenting to the squad in the week, tactics, what’s going to happen, how we’re going to go about things. But it’s also the mood of the camp because it could be a really big training week.
“Sometimes you have to just kind of chill the guys down and emotionally help them relax so they don’t get so pent up and play that game too early in the week and then kind of use all that energy really.
“There’s a lot of man management. Of course you’ve got the coach that will do a lot of that, but being a captain you’re around the players so much more and they relax around you, don’t they. Whereas if the coach is there, there might be a little bit of ‘oohh I can’t muck around too much in front of them’.
“But it is really important to build those kind of off-field relationships.”
Peter O’Mahony
As with our previous guests and their selected facet of the game, Robshaw was asked to pick his standout leader from the players involved in this year’s Six Nations.
“I went for Peter O’Mahony of Ireland,” he said. “I think he’s got over 100 caps as well. He’s had a pretty impressive resume, of course being very heavily involved with the Munster captaincy and was skipper there for a long time, albeit he has just stepped down.
“He would have been in that kind of senior leadership group, no doubt with Ireland, so he would have had a huge say in that.
“Also with him he is probably a little bit older and has built a good leadership group around him. He often now plays about 60 minutes because they have such good options and someone else will step into that role and take it forward. That, I think, is a really good leader as you’re not stepping out of the role and letting the squad down, you’ve enhanced everyone else around you to continue those standards and I think that’s what he does really well.”
The right leaders
“Yeah, it’s really interesting because you see press headlines with England when certain players are getting touted about, not so much this year, but in the past that they should be captain and you’re like ‘do you know anything about that person? What they would be like and all this kind of stuff?’ Perceptions are a funny one, as you don’t see the true ins and outs of people from the outside world,” Robshaw said.
“Being a captain is 24/7 thing, there’s no doubt about that. You can’t dip in and out of it and sometimes you have to make those tough decisions.
“You have to tell your friends, the rest of the team, whatever it be, that things weren’t good enough and then you have to be able to park it, separate yourself and kind of be like, you know what that wasn’t great, I need to go to my room or whatever and distance myself from the squad.
“As a captain, there’s times when you’re very much in the players’ camp and times when you’re in a coaches’ camp so you have to tread that middle ground.”
The Perfect Six Nations Player series is brought to by eToro, the official investing and trading partner of Premiership Rugby.
Tackle investing the smart way and join millions of UK investors on eToro today. The friendly platform for serious investors.
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.