Stuart Lancaster says Chris Robshaw was right to
step away from rugby over the summer even
though it threatened to cost him the England
captaincy.
Robshaw opted to rest rather than tour Argentina with
Lancaster's squad.
But he has been reinstated as skipper for the autumn
internationals against Australia, Argentina and New
Zealand after holding off Tom Wood's claims.
Head coach Lancaster said: "It was the right thing to
do. The pressures of captaining club and country are
big."
He added: "When I looked at him and spoke to him at
the end of last season, while he was willing to go on
tour, I felt a physical and mental break was important
for him. And he's come back refreshed, to take on the
role again.
"We spoke about the end of the season, to give him
some areas to develop. One was his foot speed over the
floor, and his ability to change his pace.
"He's worked on those. Harlequins have done a good
job and he looks in great shape. To have a big back row
in the modern game is handy, so he's got physicality as
well, but I think he's a bit more dynamic as well."
Robshaw had been omitted from the British and
Ireland Lions squad that secured a historic series win
down under, and then had to watch as Wood
captained England to win in their own series in
Argentina.
But Lancaster feels that process has left him in a better
position as Australia come to town.
The coach said: "It obviously hurt him. But it happened
at a time when he had the opportunity to get away
from rugby. To be able to get abroad, get some sun on
his back, reflect on what he'd done over the last 12
months… I think he came back having put it to bed
and moved on.
"He's had to fight to get in the England side, and he
knows nothing will be taken for granted. And he's had
disappointments in the past, and fought back from
them."
Lancaster will finalise his team for Australia's visit to
Twickenham on 2 November after training next
Tuesday, although it seems certain that Billy Vunipola
will win a first start at eight.
The coach was also fulsome in his praise for
Northampton scrum-half Lee Dickson, which suggests
Ben Youngs might not be guaranteed the starting role
at nine.
"Everyone has to be playing at the top of their game to
get picked," he said. "We could have lads who have
been away on Lions tours wondering now if they're
going to get picked."
Neither was Robshaw given any assurances about the
captaincy when he opted to miss the summer tour.
But Lancaster made it clear that, once he came
through the weekend's games unscathed, the
Harlequins flanker was his clear favourite to resume the
role.
"I gave him the assurance that if he was playing well
enough he'd get picked, and then I'd make the
captaincy decision after that," revealed Lancaster.
"But experience matures players and captains. It'll help
him deal with the on-field situations you face as
captain.
"You've talked about Tom captaining the side - the two
times he did it in Argentina are the only times he's
done it. It's a big ask to then ask someone to make all
those on-field decisions and to get them right, to get a
feel for the game as well as concentrate on your own
game. It's a different skill.
"When you're captaining England, there's a bigger role
to play than just purely the on-field decision making.
Chris's experience in doing it over the last 12 months
will help him - it's a case he's had more time doing it
and he'll be better this time around.
"If you put together the likes of Geoff Parling, who
obviously went on the Lions tour and took the
leadership role, Tom Wood, who's captained England,
Dylan Hartley, who captains his club, and Lee Dickson's
captained his club, Toby Flood's captaining his club…
we've got players in there with a range of experiences,
and that's what you need in a team."
Robshaw, however, is guaranteed little beyond this
autumn. Lancaster insists his skipper has the role only
for the next three games, not least because of the
young open-sides who are expected to push the
incumbent hard.
The 27-year-old has sometimes been denigrated as a
'six and a half' rather than a specialist open-side,
although his coach believes some of that criticism
should be borne by those around him.
"An open-side's game is dependent on the team," said
Lancaster. "The priority is to make sure the team plays
well, because if the team plays well, then open-sides
tend to play well.
"We have young players who are more in that
(specialist) sort of mould - Matt Kvesic, obviously, Will
Fraser, Luke Wallace - but we need a little bit more
consistency from them in order to justify picking one
of them ahead of someone like Chris."
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