Matt Dawson column: A Grand Slam should be seen as ‘stepping stone’
One danger is that teams show off their absolute swagger in the middle of the World Cup cycle.
We’ve seen this before. But New Zealand and South Africa won back-to-back World Cups and were the best team in the world for long periods.
Being the best team in the world before 2027 is not a negative thing.
If England can move up the rankings and move into number one or two by winning the Six Nations or Nations Championship, they will be in a strong position to reach the World Cup final. That’s the ultimate goal.
People always talk about peaking too early, but I look at it differently. These are the moments where you will learn all you have learned, and if you go on a winning run, so be it.
England won’t go undefeated until the World Cup and part of the learning process is figuring out how to bounce back from defeat.
Strangely enough, I would actually like England to lose a game at some point because you don’t want their first defeat to come in a World Cup qualifier.
England have taken complete control this autumn and have shown they can win ugly too.
It was always going to be difficult to achieve such an emotional high against New Zealand and in 2019 they were miles away from backing up that famous semi-final win.
But they proved they can do it against Argentina.
If they have a big performance at Murrayfield then the challenge is to back that up the following week.
When you go on a winning run you can really get down to the nitty gritty, whereas before it was all about selection, style of play or injuries.
England don’t need to worry about that anymore, it’s about fixing the little things that get you to the top.
Sir Clive Woodward called these the “hundredths”, the little details that make all the difference.
Winning teams have their foundations locked in, allowing coaches to spend time on everything else.
Many of the current England squad have never had the chance to focus on these smaller elements.
This is why Ireland and France have long winning streaks.
Now that England know how to win games, they can improve further and get to the top of the Six Nations.
