After successful Lions tour, head coach returns to a side under pressure to prove their best days are not behind them
O
ne minute we’re winding the clocks back an hour, the next we’re hurtling forwards into rugby union’s maddest month. Welcome to the whistle-stop world of the Autumn Nations Series, which, this year, has arrived as abruptly as a cat burglar in the Louvre. Sides that take time to settle into familiar old routines are about to experience a short, sharp shock.
Of course there is the flip side: the main southern hemisphere powers have been smashing away at each other for weeks and certain individuals must be slightly weary. In terms of cohesion and collective readiness to pick up where they left off last time out, however, there is barely a comparison.
Which is why there will be a certain nervousness in one or two union offices in Dublin and Twickenham. Organising extra high-profile Tests outside the official window in a British & Irish Lions year to balance the books comes with a health warning. If your national team don’t immediately hit the November turf running any semblance of feelgood factor can dissolve rapidly.
