‘Let’s just stop there’ – England coach’s pointed response after Sir Clive Woodward’s Ireland claim

England coach Richard Wigglesworth has fired back at those who have attempted to ‘take credit’ for their victory over Ireland.

That particularly includes former Red Rose head honcho Sir Clive Woodward, who wrote in his Daily Mail column: “I honestly believe that Borthwick’s players had read my pre-match column because they were so quickly out of the blocks.”

Wigglesworth rejected that notion and provided a forthright response to Woodward’s claim that England were inspired by his words ahead of their triumph against Ireland in the Six Nations.

‘A slippery slope’

“To be clear there would be no media used around our team meetings to get ourselves going, that is a slippery slope to try and use,” he told reporters.

“The players hear and see it, because you have got your phone right in front of you and use it in an emotional moment, as someone like Ben Earl did.

“Let’s just stop there and you guys taking some credit from their performance. Every week is different and you use, as a player, a coaching staff and a team, different things and you will tap into different emotions.

“We want to be obsessed with getting better, want to keep moving on. What people talk about as a disaster for us is a learning experience, so at the end we are moving the dial in the right direction. We have to find everything each week.

“There are emotional buttons the players want to press themselves but at the core is are we trying to move our game on, trying to get better, having real clarity on what we are going after, so we get better.”

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The build-up to the clash at Twickenham was littered with people writing off the hosts’ chances, which could have provided them with additional motivation.

Former Ireland stars Jamie Heaslip and Simon Zebo were among those to pour scorn on the idea of England shocking the defending Six Nations champions.

Meanwhile, Ronan O’Gara stated that English rugby had declined significantly, with one of the most successful clubs in recent times, Saracens, “dying in front of us”.

Social media criticism

Social media also allows fans to put their opinions across, sometimes directly to the players and team, and Wigglesworth did admit to compiling a few of those posts prior to the Ireland match.

“I would have scrolled back years and years to find some really embarrassing posts. Maybe a contradiction of one person one week and say ‘you don’t believe this when it is really good and you don’t believe this when it is really bad’,” he said.

“Everyone thinks they are right and that is now put out there so you can read it and believe it, read it or ignore it.”

The pressure has eased on Borthwick and his team since Saturday’s triumph, but Wigglesworth knows that it could easily ramp up again with a poor display in France.

England’s attack guru therefore insists that they must back up that performance in this weekend’s Six Nations finale against Les Bleus.

“What you can’t do is go ‘right, we had this win that everyone has enjoyed’ and stay there,” he added. “We have to build back up and to build back up we have to have a dip, which comes post-game with all the emotion involved. What we have got to do is decide we want to improve again.”

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