It's time to pile on the pressure and use Cardiff cauldron to test England's mettle

Grand Slam week feels like no other inside the England camp. There is electricity in the coaching room and incredible excitement from the restaurant to the recovery pool at Pennyhill Park.
One of my favourite sayings in sport is ‘How do you want to be remembered?’ Well, this England team will answer that question on Saturday.
I hope they did not even watch a recording of the Italy match. They have a Grand Slam game in Cardiff and they just need to focus on that.

Play time: Alex Goode is no match for Manu Tuilagi... but on Saturday it will be time to get serious

 

  

Wales have had an extra day’s rest and England will spend nearly half a day travelling, so that is one difficulty for Stuart Lancaster — especially at this stage of the tournament when there are some battered bodies. The physios will be working overtime.
I always favoured short, intense training sessions ahead of these games and the emphasis would be on the basics. In terms of mindset the pressure is huge, but as a coach I loved it. Winners perform best when the pressure is at its greatest so what matters is going down to Cardiff and playing out of your skins.
If I was Stuart Lancaster I would be building this game up in meetings — this is the week to find out which of your players can really thrive in a pressure cooker. Don’t take the pressure off, pile it on.
Lancaster has built this side from scratch and they are about to play the most significant game of their careers in one of the best atmospheres in world rugby.
Owen Farrell, for one, looks unfazed under fire, but how much do we really know about the others? We will find out.
Playing Wales in Cardiff for the Grand Slam involves 10 times the pressure of the All Blacks Test in November, so who can keep their heads and make the correct calls? I had four Grand Slam matches, all away from home, and learned a great deal from each of the defeats that preceded England’s first Six Nations Grand Slam in 2003. 

1999: Wales 32 England 31

As a football nut, the chance to play at Wembley was manna from heaven. That stadium was a church to me. I idolised the 1966 team and went to all England’s games in Euro 96. I had visions of my team following Bobby Moore up those famous steps to collect the trophy.
This was one of the most remarkable games I’ve been involved in and I learned two key lessons.
First, you can have the best team in the world and do all the coaching you like, but if the players lose their discipline you will be punished. It was 3-0 on tries at half-time and we should have been walking to the Grand Slam but we gave too many penalties away.
Neil Jenkins, who is now Leigh Halfpenny’s kicking coach, had eight kicks at goal and did not miss one. It is all but impossible to win the Grand Slam on enemy ground if you concede more penalties than your opponents. 

Party-poopers: Wales celebrate their win over England at Wembley in 1999

I had to learn how to coach my team not to concede penalties. After that game I brought professional referee Steve Lander into our coaching team and I simply stopped selecting players who gave away stupid penalties.
The second lesson was about decision-making when it comes to putting a game away. As time was running out we made some poor decisions. Captain Lawrence Dallaglio and I learned a lot about leadership that day — seeing games out requires calm heads. I started to research this subject as it was clear there was more needed to win than just having very talented players.
From that day on, we analysed the decision-making in every game.
I looked myself in the mirror and took the blame. I then pledged not to make the same mistake again.
As a team, we spent long hours in the coaching ‘war room’, analysing our performances in a way that we never had before. It felt like the world stopped after Scott Gibbs’ try in the final seconds, but I knew I had to get back to work. The next morning I was shattered but I got to Twickenham at about 5.30am as the sun was coming up. I had a coffee with the security guards and then turned my computer on. Needless to say, I had a lot of positive feedback from my Welsh friends! 

Plenty to ponder: Head coach Stuart Lancaster (left) and Andy Farrell share their thoughts

2000: Scotland 19 England 13

It is remarkable to think that Scotland had lost every game before this clash, but I don’t regret this defeat because we learned so much.
After this game I coined two phrases — ‘it only takes 20 seconds to score’ and ‘thinking correctly under pressure’ — which both became core parts of our culture.
I have never seen rain like it, but with 15 minutes to go we were still within one score of victory.
Instead of clearing our lines to gain territory and possession, we were taking tap penalties in our 22.
You have to be a bright, intelligent team to win the Grand Slam and in that appalling weather we weren’t. We forgot that you can’t win a rugby match in your own half.
You need a player in every position who can handle the pressure but too many didn’t. They were getting involved in scraps instead of worrying about the score.
Martin Johnson was available after an injury but I didn’t pick him. This team had gone to Paris and smashed the French so I stuck with Garath Archer and Simon Shaw.
We lost the game, won the Six Nations and then forgot to get the trophy from Princess Anne — I have had better days!

Great Scot: Andy Nicol is held aloft by his team-mates as Matt Dawson looks on after England lose at Murrayfield

I should have played Johnno and from that defeat I learned to pick an ‘away’ team — players who are at their best in really big matches. I had to find out how to evaluate these players and I eventually found the answer in Tel Aviv of all places. I was told about Yudha Shinar, a brilliant sports psychologist who had worked with the Israeli army, so I jumped on a plane to spend some time with him. Yudha convinced me that this quality could be coached in every player and is not something that is innate.

2001: Ireland 20 England 14

This was an odd game, played after the foot-and-mouth scare and after the Lions tour. We had been playing fantastic, fast rugby in the tournament and a lot of England players were selected for the Lions. Come October, they were still affected by the series defeat. Iain Balshaw left as the superstar in a star-studded back line, but that tour hurt his form.
The only try we conceded was a sneaky trick off the lineout from Keith Wood. We were not alert to it because we were rusty and unprepared and that was a lesson.
We lost fair and square, but it re-inforced to me the importance of proper preparation. Detail is everything at this level and we were just badly undercooked because of the circumstances.
After the match, the sponsors asked us for a picture with the trophy and you’ve never seen 25 more miserable faces in your life —standing on a champions’ podium!

Sore losers: England reflect on another opportunity missed in Dublin in 2001

Although at the time these losses were devastating, winning back-to-back Six Nations in 2000 and 2001 was a great achievement with vital lessons learnt. But the harsh fact of the matter is people cannot name all the players in those teams while everyone remembers the 2003 Grand Slam winners.
So for England on Saturday, it all comes back to that question: How do you want to be remembered?