Ollie Chessum on ‘tomorrow’s job’ as England lock issues ominous warning to Six Nations rivals
England second-row Ollie Chessum on their Six Nations win over Wales.
Ollie Chessum is a man who doesn’t forget his rugby experiences, and with the pre-match sideways rain still fresh in memory, he admitted that England had realised the gameplan they needed to deliver.
The in-form lock explained that it was the moment they walked out to warm up ahead of the Six Nations clash with Wales on Saturday that clarity was established.
“Sideways rain, it’s greasy, we knew that set-piece was going to be a huge part of it and knew we could force a lot of errors with the collisions,” he said. “You get set-piece off the back of that and if you get dominance there you can move your way up the field pretty efficiently.”
Positive reaction
“The boys were great at that in the first half. Second half, we spoke about keeping the scoreboard moving, which we did to start with, then Wales gained momentum around the hour mark, but overall, still a really good effort.
“Growth areas exist naturally, and we know what we need to do. As an example, the contestable kicking game needs work, particularly after watching France’s efficiency on Thursday night.”
“You see how much of an influence the contestable kicking has,” Chessum said. “That is somewhere we will look to develop a bit, we lost a couple and then they get a bit of momentum, and you are on the back foot pretty quickly. But that is tomorrow’s job.”
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He added: “The set-piece delivered though, crucial on a day like this. We were really efficient with it, smart, got good dominance when they went to the floor, which either put our backs in a good position to pull the trigger, or we got a penalty off the back of it and were able to make it a double play. Really good in that area and very pleasing.”
Wearing opponents down slowly carries its own danger, though, Chessum noted, and there’s always the temptation to force things when you’re on top.
“There are times when it feels as though you are missing an opportunity to score while you have the ball, and that can be the danger when you get on top. You try to score too early, try, and force it. I thought the boys were good at that, patient, they had a couple of yellow cards off the back of it and then you know what rugby’s like, there are holes opening up somewhere, be it set-piece or out wide.
Lock partners
Chessum started the game alongside Alex Coles on Saturday and was later joined by Maro Itoje, and he had nothing but praise for his England colleagues.
“Playing alongside Maro Itoje and Alex Coles today brought different qualities. Both the lads are fantastic in their own way. I love playing with Alex, a good mate of mine in camp. When you both get an opportunity to prove yourself a little bit, you feel like you have a point to prove together. And when you have Maro’s quality coming off the bench, you can guess how reassuring that is even if he did get binned,” Chessum giggled.
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“I tried to have a little word with him there, but stuff happens, we were on a warning anyway and he wouldn’t have really been aware of that and had a crack at the ball.”
“The cohesion shown over 10 days in Spain and back home is only the beginning,” the Tigers lock concluded. “There is plenty more in us to have done what we’ve done tonight off the back of 10 days training. Obviously, we’ve been away in Spain, come back, spent some good time together. But those connections are only going to get tighter as we spend more time together.”