Fitting send-off for Chris Robshaw underlines exciting future of England back row

Very few people would dispute that Tom Curry has developed into one of the world’s best back-rowers over the past few years.

And yet Steve Diamond, Sale Sharks’ director of rugby, had no trouble admitting that his tearaway 22-year-old had been “schooled” by Chris Robshaw at a couple of breakdowns last month.

Harlequins’ 16-10 win at the Twickenham Stoop, which began the Premiership’s post-lockdown schedule, was built on a gritty, intelligent performance from their pack.

Robshaw played superbly, and this is clearly one of the moments that stuck in Diamond’s mind. From a ninth-minute scrum, Faf de Klerk feeds blindside wing Byron McGuigan. Track the two opensides, Curry and Robshaw, as Sam Hill runs at the gain-line:

McGuigan fixes Marcus Smith and slips a pass to his inside centre with James Lang readjusting to make the tackle. Robshaw is about 10 metres away at this stage…

…and accelerates into the shot as Hill hits the floor. Curry is close by…

…but is beaten to the tackle-area:

Robshaw clamps on and lifts the ball off the ground in full view of referee Luke Pearce:

The jackal is enough for Harlequins to be awarded a penalty:

Diamond clocked Robshaw chatting to both Curry twins, Ben and Tom, on the pitch following the final whistle of this game.

He saw the exchange as a tangible example of experienced operators passing on knowledge to young bucks – a virtuous circle that has contributed to producing the glut of promising back-rowers in England.

Eddie Jones was famously unimpressed by England’s back row at Rugby World Cup 2015. When the Australian took over from Stuart Lancaster, though, he learned to appreciate Robshaw. Jones would come to rely on him as a “glue player”.

With James Haskell, Dylan Hartley, Mike Brown and Danny Care, Robshaw was vital in helping England generate momentum between 2016 and 2017 before Jones’ revamp ahead of Rugby World Cup 2019.

It feels appropriate that the last of his 66 caps came alongside Tom Curry in Cape Town as England beat South Africa 25-10 two years ago. Curry excelled from openside flanker, thanks in no small part to the industrious and unselfish efforts of his ally on the blindside.

Equally fitting has been Robshaw’s prolonged Harlequins farewell. As the 34-year-old’s personal standards have remained high, colleagues such as James Chisholm, Alex Dombrandt and Will Evans have shone.

Last night represented an archetypal Robshaw performance, full of understated contributions that made his peers look good. He topped the tackle-count on either side, completing 15 without missing one.

Despite a scrum that was dominated and dismantled, Harlequins were leading 20-8 when Elia Elia’s red card foreshadowed Wasps’ comeback.

Here, in the 20th minute, Elia throws a lineout towards Dombrandt:

Watch Robshaw. He sees that Wasps and Wales lock Will Rowlands has climbed in front of Harlequins’ lifting pod, and changes direction. He runs through the lineout…

…and collects the loose ball…

…trundling up to the Wasps 22 and feeding Elia:

Robshaw stays in support, clearing the ruck after Tom Willis drags down the Harlequins hooker. Evans arrives…

…and spots some space around the fringes. He picks and goes…

…but finds himself isolated. No bother. With lock Glen Young also mucking in, Robshaw bounces off the floor…

…and helps clear the next breakdown, too:

Two phases later in the opposite corner, thanks to the understated graft of his back-row teammate, Dombrandt surges off the shoulder of Marcus Smith to score:

Led by the phenomenal Jack Willis, surely heading towards England recognition, Wasps are the most potent breakdown scavengers in the Premiership. And yet, prior to Elia’s red card in the 54th minute, Harlequins had forced four jackal turnovers to the visitors’ one. Robshaw was central to that turnover tally.

Again, as they had done against Northampton Saints, Harlequins tinkered with their scrum formation. Here, Robshaw begins in the blindside flanker position. Wasps launch their attack and head towards the far touchline:

Robshaw retreats, reaching the offside line…

…and pressing back up the field, cutting towards the ball as Jimmy Gopperth passes to Rowlands:

Dino Lamb and Marc Thomas drag down Rowlands, with Robshaw loitering:

Cleverly, Robshaw waits a split-second until Thomas has pounced out of the way…

…before jackalling and scooping under the ball:

This time, a clean steal results:

On their own scrum put-in, Robshaw – approximately 10kg heavier than Evans – switched to openside in order to negate the threat of Jack Willis:

Here, André Esterhuizen receives the ball from Aaron Morris and charges forward:

When the South African centre is tackled, Robshaw drives Jack Willis away from the ball:

It is no coincidence that Jack Willis and Wasps grew into the game after Harlequins were reduced to 14 men. The jackal tally ended up 5-3 in Harlequins’ favour, with Willis senior scoring the winning try as well as forcing a breakdown steal that killed off the game.

A minute or so before that, we saw a glimpse of Robshaw’s leadership. Mike Brown passes to Evans…

…who spills:

The first man on the scene, as Evans drops his head, is Robshaw, no doubt asking his fellow back-rower to keep fighting:

Just as Robshaw has left the Harlequins back row in a good place, he will travel to America with a plethora of flankers scrapping for England spots.

The emergence of Sam Underhill and Tom Curry hastened the end of Robshaw’s England days. Ben Curry, Ben Earl, Sam Simmonds and Jack Willis are pushing hard for Test caps. All six are more dynamic.

Even so, they would do very well to emulate the diligence, honesty, resilience, skill and work-rate that Robshaw exhibited over an admirable career.