Six Nations
Lancaster - Six Nations Super Saturday is our Ryder Cup
Tom Hamilton
March 20, 2015
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Players/Officials: Stuart Lancaster
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Teams: England

Stuart Lancaster and his England side are preparing for a Ryder Cup-esque chase for the Six Nations title on Saturday when they come up against France at Twickenham.

When England kick off against France, they will know the number of points required to secure their first championship title since 2011. England head into Saturday with a points difference of four better than Ireland and 25 more than Wales but both teams play earlier in the day. For Lancaster, he feels the final day of the Six Nations is unique in sport with the nearest comparison the final day of the famous American-European battle for golf's Ryder Cup.

"The only scenario I can think of that is similar is the final day of the Ryder Cup when you're head or behind when the singles are coming," Lancaster said. "It's that sort of feeling, so it is different so it will tell us a lot about the players, but it is a pretty unique situation as well."

At approximately 28 minutes past four, with England kicking off at five, Lancaster will tell his team exactly what winning margin against France is required for them to end the day as Six Nations champions. But with point-chasing can come complacency. With that in mind, he has emphasised the need to focus on winning the match first before looking at enhancing their points difference.

In Lancaster's view "the key to begin with is not to chase the game too early" drawing on their cautionary tales of their poor starts against Wales, Italy and Ireland and while getting a good start against France is key, the build-up in training this week has focused around fine-tuning the preparation.

He has previously spoken of how in 2013 when they were chasing a Grand Slam heading into the final weekend he felt his team had already played their match against Wales the week prior such was the intensity in training. Come 2014 and he focus was on chasing points against Italy and while they racked up a commanding victory, they still finished in second place.

"Last year the pressure was to go to Italy and score 50," Lancaster said. "We did that. We're in the same situation where we need to get as many points as possible and I think the first 60 minutes of the Dublin performance aside, we've shown more consistency in attack than any other team and have shown that in our try scoring record.

"If we'd put those tries away against Scotland we might have been sat here today on 15 tries. We certainly back ourselves from that point of view. One of the key messages this week has been making sure we're better defensively because that was part of the reason we got ourselves into the 13-10 position against Scotland.

"It was a disappointing we let some of the defensive errors hurt us. If you have a points differential of 10 to chase, but then concede 10 in the first minutes, you then have to score 20. And you don't get many teams scoring 20 or 30 points in international rugby against France."

Key to the result of Saturday's game seems to be the role of the replacements. Lancaster is aware of the impact France's bench with 11 of Les Bleus' 15 tries in recent times coming in the final 30 minutes of the match. Their bench for Saturday's match is loaded on the physical side after monster tight-head Uini Atonio was named among the replacements alongside the hardly diminutive Rabah Slimani, Romain Taofifenua and Mathieu Bastareaud.

Lancaster also hopes his bench will provide some ballast of their own with Nick Easter included to that avail while Danny Cipriani will be thrown on if they are chasing points heading into the final throws of the match.

For Lancaster a win on Saturday will be bittersweet if it does not lead to the title - they have finished second, three years running under his stewardship - and it could come down to a simple question of who handles the pressure the best. The challenge for France - who have a slim chance of winning the title but need results at Murrayfield, Stadio Olimpico and Twickenham to go their way - is to gate-crash England's party and Lancaster is fully aware of just how dangerous a wounded French team is.

"Certainly from their point of view, I am sure they will be desperate to improve on their performances. Obviously they have had some criticism and they have got a lot of belief from 29-0 [win over Italy] and they will be desperate to come to Twickenham and obviously put their mark on the game.

"But they have had a six-day turn-around and we know from two years ago when we played Italy on the Sunday and had to play on the Saturday - that six-day turnaround does hurt you and when you have to travel as well. And you have got those last twenty minutes of the game to get through. If we keep the intensity high then hopefully we can make them feel the pressure."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
Tom Hamilton is the Associate Editor of ESPNscrum.

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