For Ireland and Scotland, the phoney war of the Festival of Rugby is over and the race for the William Webb Ellis trophy has begun. From here it is either onwards and upwards, or the dreaded “DCM”. Don’t Come Monday.
For Scotland and Ireland, the match is the beginning of a dramatic series that will end with only two possible outcomes – the lifting of the William Webb Ellis trophy or a short flight home from France.
Rugby World Cups are the pinnacle of our sport and, like all elite sports, they are as cruel as they are beautiful. From here, every win magnifies the mental pressure as players become aware of the massive consequences of both success and failure.
The teams that successfully deal with the enormous emotional pressure that expands as teams progress deeper into the knock-out stages of the RWC will win.
Dealing with pressure and performing while in an environment of high stress is the hallmark of all great sportspeople. The crooked throw into a lineout, the missed goal in a penalty shoot-out, and the botched free throw from the foul line in a basketball play-off are all signs of athletes not dealing with pressure.
Some of the cliches that sports psychologists trot out such as “pressure is a privilege” and “we can only control the controllables” are undeniably true statements.
But the mental skills required to perform under pressure are far more complex than repeating a phrase. Learning to manage performance anxiety is a mental skill that, like a physical skill, takes a long time to master.
Long before the introduction of sports psychologists into rugby, coaches have been experimenting, mostly unsuccessfully, with crude methods in attempting to enhance performance by reducing tension and anxiety.
As the legendary American baseball player and manager Yogi Berra famously said, “Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.”
My first real encounter with mental skills coaching was when our amateur club coach brought in a Neanderthal species of sports psychologist to give our great unwashed a lecture on mental skills.
The only memorable moment in a long and tiresome monologue was during the question and answer segment when the delicate subject was raised of whether having sex the night before a big game hindered or enhanced performance.
As it was the only issue that held some relevance to the audience that evening, a thin film of beaded sweat appeared on the brow of the clearly anxious psychologist, who in a drowning, monotone voice fumbled and bumbled a non answer, making no consequential conclusions on the topic.
Finally, our club coach rose to his feet. A gregarious and rotund former player, with a dry sense of humour, who walked about with a smouldering, hand-rolled cigarette permanently balanced on the left side of his lower lip, he stood to pontificate on this slippery subject.
We were astounded when he declared to his young audience: “I encourage my players to have sex the night before an important match”.
Something told us there was a punchline coming.
”However, it’s the six beers you have while trying to find it that I object to.”
It would be another decade before a sports psychologist was brave enough to return to our club.
Then there is the magical and psychologically exhilarating word created by the Randwick rugby player and coach, Jeffrey Leonard Sayle. It is a word that I have spoken about before, but as the pressure mounts at RWC 2023 we must joyously revisit “Whosh-ka-bomy.”
Its genius resides in its ridiculous and childish sound. When you hear it, you simply have to smile.
Jeffrey was not a great technical coach but his players adored him and played for him. His giant frame would stalk the change room, limping on his bad knee, as he beamed his wide smile, booming to his players: “Boys, today you have to find your Whosh-ka-bomy”'
All his players could do was smile. The humour released tension and reduced anxiety, which enhanced his team’s performance.
As an amateur mental skills coach, Jeffrey was on the right path.
By inventing “Whosh-ka-bomy” Jeffrey wanted his team to be in, what modern sports psychologists call, “flow”. Mental skills coaches teach methods that allow players to process anxiety created by highly-pressurised environments so that they can perform at the peak of their abilities.
In reality “Whosh-ka-bomy” is a term far more suited to the highly complex nuances of rugby than that dry, clinical term of “flow”. At its essence, Whosh-ka-bomy is a rugby mindset. A determination to adopt an attacking, ball-in-hand, aggressive game plan while under great pressure. To find the courage and resolve to play to the philosophy in which the team has been coached.
It reinforces the need for each individual to trust what has been taught to them across the journey that has delivered them to this day. It reassures each player that no matter what the challenges that the contest may bring – and they will be significant – they and their team-mates can be confident they have been provided with the tools to win.
It is said that on the biggest of stages teams do not rise to their hopes, they drop to their worst habits. Habits that have been created over years of practice are what win big games. Exposing those habits under extreme pressure is what separates the great from the rest.
As it is and has always been, the team that finds their flow will perform but the team that can unleash their Whosh-ka-bomy will win.
