France vs England: Champions can complete clean sweep if they have maturity to deal with emotional turmoil

Billy Vunipola will have to punch the ref not to win the ‘most valuable player’ gong

Billy Vunipola (GETTY IMAGES)

Every Grand Slam is different, but the teams who land the biggest prize in European rugby tend to have one thing in common. I’m talking about clarity – the quality that allows players in all departments to perform calmly and coherently under the pressure applied by their opponents and, perhaps more importantly, operate effectively in the face of the emotional turmoil generated from within.

Both Ireland and Wales, the sides who delivered the most recent Six Nations clean sweeps, had a clear idea of what they were about. They took relatively uncomplicated approaches to their attacking games, they had well-rehearsed defensive strategies and were blessed with goal-kickers who could split the sticks with their eyes shut.

England are trying different things with ball in hand to anything we’ve seen in recent seasons and there is no guarantee they will press all the right buttons on such a big occasion as this one, but they’ve defended with a passion for much of the tournament and, in Owen Farrell, they have a marksman of true quality. So, on balance, their prospects are good. I’m pretty sure the French will ask some seriously difficult questions tonight – that there will be moments when things threaten to get messy – but Eddie Jones is a coach who brings strong leadership to the mix and is exactly the kind of bloke to unclutter his players’ minds with a few well-chosen words. Or maybe a torrent of well-chosen words.

He certainly won’t have fallen into the obvious trap after watching his team land the title with their victory over Wales last weekend. In his previous life as coach of Japan, I’m reliably informed that he celebrated the Brave Blossoms’ remarkable World Cup victory over the Springboks by giving his back-room staff what amounted to a dressing-down in advance as a means of guarding against complacency ahead of the next match. My guess is that he’ll have been doubly hard on everyone this week, for precisely the same reason.

If we’re talking clarity, by the way, this much is as clear as day: Billy Vunipola will have to punch the referee not to win the “most valuable player of the tournament” gong. There’s barely been a collision he hasn’t won or a tackler he hasn’t run over. He’s winning penalties for his side almost as easily as he’s winning ground: the opposition are putting two men on him, sometimes three, and still finishing second in the contact.

With the No 8 in this mood and Eddie making the right calls when it comes to the fine detail – he was very clever in using the half-back Ben Youngs to attack the Welsh down the blind side as a means of unstitching Shaun Edwards’ renowned defensive set-up, based as it was on blitzing the first and second receivers on the open side of the field – I think England have the game to complete the job. But it’s far from a foregone conclusion.

There are two things to consider here: the big-match mindset of England with a precious Slam in sight, and the danger posed by the French. Let’s take the second point first. Yes, it’s been a funny old tournament for Les Bleus: two narrow victories to begin with, two painful defeats in rounds three and four. But I saw enough from them in Scotland last weekend to think they’ll be a threat today.

Guy Novès, their latest coach, has them offloading in the grand tradition of Toulouse, and if those passes start sticking look out. When they scored that brilliant opening try at Murrayfield, I thought, “Hello, they’ll blow this lot away.” But things went wrong for them at the scrum – I’m not at all sure the referee, Glen Jackson, did them any favours in that crucial area – and they allowed the Scots to sucker-punch them at critical moments.

For all that, England would be advised to keep a very close eye on the new wing, Virimi Vakatawa. He’s been sensational, given this is his first time on the main stage, and if France can play off the edge he gives them they’ll be a proper handful.

Which leads to the question of mental approach. I was involved in the coaching team under Martin Johnson when we went to Dublin in search of a Slam in 2011… and came up short. When we reflected on it as a back-room staff, we felt we were probably too intense in the build-up – too focused on the outcome rather than the process. The best sports psychologists will tell you it should always be the other way round.

It was also true that some of the younger blokes in the team were a little too immature to handle a highly-charged game in which the Irish were obviously going to bust a gut in an effort to piddle on our parade. It was a tough experience for all of us – if I’m honest, it really stung. Are these England players grown-up enough to make it happen? On balance, I think so. Just about.

Brian Smith was England’s attack coach between 2008 and 2011