The 2022 Six Nations just finished this past weekend – and what a tournament it was…
Much of the excitement this year came from surprising developments that particularly interested us here at InnerDrive. So, our sport and performance psychologists got together to discuss our main takeaways from the 2022 Six Nations. Here’s what stood out to us the most…
CALLING SUBSTITUTES "FINISHERS"
Over the last few years, England and now other teams have started to call their substitutes “finishers”. We like this idea. Whilst we are not saying that everyone should do this, there are four reasons why we think this works.
- Role Clarity – By being clear with players about what their specific role is in a game, it’s likely that it will improve their confidence and reduce their anxiety – which in turn might help to improve their performance. Thus, referring to players as your finishers and giving them a specific role to play when they come on might actually help them perform better.
- Motivation – It would be easy for players who are not in the starting team to be demotivated. It’s also really easy for players to see this as being second best in their position. However, by referring to these players as “finishers”, you may keep them motivated during the week and during the game as they know they have an important part to play.
- Maximising players strengths – Using subs as finishers also means that teams tend to utilise players in a way that maximises their strengths; for example, bringing on players who play well under pressure, are good at set pieces or can change the feel of the game. Doing this also offers another nice chance to reflect on where your players are at and what they are better than others at, too.
- Keeps intensity high - It seems as though any players who come on as finishers keep the intensity just as high if not higher, as they are clear about their role, motivated and know that they only have a short amount of time to perform.
UNBEATABLE FRANCE
The French team won the title for the first time in 12 years and secured a Grand Slam victory too – meaning they didn't lose a single match this year! They have been described as superior in every area, strong up front, more accurate in the backs, tighter in defence, and clinical in attack. They never lost their fire and kept fighting till the end to secure that Grand Slam.
They all knew what they needed to do and worked together to achieve it. They still had moments where they switched off during Tests, almost losing to Ireland in Round 2 after a fast start and giving England some hope over the weekend.
But they knew how to bring back the focus, keeping their attention in the right places and staying resilient throughout. These are the qualities that the other teams didn’t have, leading them to their victory.
SURPRISES IN HOME ADVANTAGE
We’ve looked at the research behind home advantage and found it has consistently shown to make a difference in sport. We have found that the home teams in football get better decisions from referees, score more goals, can be spurred on to put in more effort, enjoy a sense of familiarity before and during the match, and may even benefit from a testosterone boost.
But at this year’s Six Nations, surprisingly, this wasn’t really the case. There were many games were the home team were defeated, the most obvious example being when France beat Scotland at home 36-17 – the heaviest home defeat suffered by Scotland in 7 years.
There were five other cases where the home team was defeated throughout the Six Nations this year. Perhaps this shows that although a home advantage exists, no team should rely on it exclusively – ultimately, the best team can and often will still win.
INJURIES HAPPEN
Before the tournament even started, defending champions, Wales were plagued with injuries and struggled to put a team together. For many of the players who had to miss the Six Nations, this would have been a tough time for them to just sit and watch when they want to be on the field.
As sport psychologists, we often work with our athletes to help them grow through injuries and see that there can even an upside to them. Athletes can use the period of time following injury for self-reflection and as an opportunity to grow through adversity.
We advise our athletes to grow through injury by:
- Taking time to reflect
- Focusing on something else
- Finding another role
- View it as an opportunity to step back and gain perspective.
DISAPPOINTMENT FOR ENGLAND
England’s performance has been labelled as a “disaster” by the media. The pressure seemed to get to them, and they didn’t produce the results they wanted. They are going to need to pick themselves up ahead of their three-Test series in July.
Is your team in a similar situation? To bounce back, we suggest players and coaches need to:
- Build their confidence back up by using the past, present and future.
- Turn failures into success – Praise your team for developing and improving to encourage them to get right back to work when things don’t go their way.
- Reduce the fear of failure in your athletes – Often, it’s not the failure itself that athletes fear. It’s the perceived negative consequences of that failure that stresses them out.
- Encourage athletes to seek support from within the team itself but also outside: friends, family, professionals.
- Foster resilience - Here are 9 ways that Olympic champions develop their resilience.
- Offer better feedback - In sport, setbacks are inevitable at some point. However, athletes can avoid making the same mistakes again by using quality feedback. There are many ways to give better feedback. One of our favourites? Try to view it as feedforward.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This year’s Six Nations provided another few weeks of exciting rugby, full of highs and lows and many things for the players and coaches to take away.
All the teams should be taking time to reflect, learning from their mistakes and focusing on what they need to do now, not being hung up on what’s happened or what’s to come. We are excited to see what happens next for the teams, whether France can carry on being relentless and if England can bounce back!
