I guess many of us were glued to the screen last night and watched Germany become the World Champions. Germany were arguably the most consistent team in the tournament and few will forget their annihilation of Brazil in the semi-finals. The exciting thing for Germany, and the equally worrying fact for the rest of us, is that they still have a very young team and have the potential to dominate the world game over the coming years! They also seem to want to play for one another – I read a comment today made by centre back Mats Hummels who said, ‘You can only be world champions when you act as a team’. It got me thinking about how much progress our own young team has made under the coaching of Paul and Justin, supported by Lorraine and her great performance team. There is a real sense of wanting to work for one another and to achieve something very special. This will take time but having a strong team ethos is a critical foundation stone for success. Another key to success is learning how to win. That probably sounds a bit obvious but it is a fact that winning does not just happen, it is the result of many factors coming together simultaneously to create that great result. And having won, it is equally important to understand how to keep winning. Great sports people and teams are able to win even when they are not playing their best, they are able to forget the negatives as soon as they happen and move on to the next thing – I am always struck by how great tennis players do this – one minute the ball sliced into the net, the next minute the same player serves an ace. This weekend it was really good to see our own GB team perform well in the Swiss Preparation Tournament – playing 5 games and winning them all to come away with the tournament trophy. They played some great rugby against some good teams. It is true that they were not pitching themselves against the top 4 in the world but this will come in less than 3 weeks time at the world championships. The important thing is that exposure to competition and winning games helps to fuel a hunger for success. The more you win, the more you want to win and I know that this is true for our team. Let’s wish them all the best for their final preparations for Odense.
David Pond
