Here comes T-CUP … for this Saturday afternoon

Yesterday I overhead Sir Clive Woodward, former English rugby team coach of the 2003 winning World Cup fame, tell Matt Dawson, most capped English scrum half with 51 games, to remember T-CUP and I thought what is this? Earl Grey? Chamomile? Our Rooibos?

Personally, I am more familiar with a C-cup than a T-CUP and would prefer to keep it that way.

Then later in the day I am reading an English paper, best I say British newspaper, lest this be misconstrued for something other than Die Burger or Rapport and this T-CUP comes up again, this time with Martin Johnson, the new England Head Coach as the driving force behind this initiative and I discover that this is an acronym for Thinking Correctly Under Pressure.

Where does this come from?

The answer Believe-It-Or-Not comes from an Israeli pilot Yehuda Shinar, turned self-help guru, who is recognised by Sir Clive Woodward as one of the key men in the building of the 2003 Rugby World Cup Champions. Yehuda Shinar wrote a book, Think Like a Winner, in which Woodward wrote the foreward.

Together with Shinar, Woodward developed the acronym T-CUP – Thinking Correctly Under Pressure –, which became the mantra that he would drill into his winning squad.

Woodward then developed seven winning behaviour patterns – self-control, decisiveness, leadership, for instance – which became posters crammed with information.

It is easy to say, “We need more self-control” or “We need to be more fired up”. But the England team could not translate such rhetoric into action.

Woodward believed that T-CUP showed them how and now Martin Johnson will apply the same T-CUP rationale against the South Africans on Saturday at Twickenham.

“It goes back to confidence and how critical it is to translating winning skills to winning performances,” Shinar said. “Getting afraid and doubtful happens to everyone. They need to deal with that. Do they have the tools to nullify those thoughts? Because that is what winners do.”

And crucially, Shinar said, this applies to England’s training-versus-playing conundrum. “What mental threats do these players experience on the training field? None. But on the real field? When their reputation and success is on the line? Every competitor has doubts; the question is how you deal with them. They need to feel they deserve to finish the game as winners.

“The concept of winning is a methodology. Winners have negative thoughts, too, but they use and translate T-CUP into winning behaviours. That is what Clive’s England players did so well.”

And now comes Martin Johnson’s new crop of players that are going to take on the Springboks on Saturday.

Of course Peter de Villiers, Gary Gold and Dick Muir, with their video analyst, are going to study the English and offer up counter suggestions to moves and plays that were tried by the All Blacks and the Wallabies over the past two weeks, but, and this is an enormous BUT …

This is effectively South Africa’s last game of the year and it seems to me that the Springboks can hardly wait for the year to end. Okay, they will be cautioned that this is their last game and that they must give it their all and lay it on the line, BUT deep inside there is a mental softness.

We have seen it with Brian Habana, Ruan Pienaar, Pierre Spies, Schalk Burger, Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield, Juan Smith, Danie Rossouw and half the Springbok EOY touring squad. John Smit has been remarkable in holding it together, but the cracks are there and are about to burst.

There is no assassin instinct, no junkyard dog, fight-to-the-death mental toughness from South Africa and I think that is where the English will want to finish the year, on a high, defeating South Africa at home, at Twickenham, in front of 80 000 fans and to even the score from a year ago when South Africa beat England at the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

So Martin Johnson and his English squad of known and unknown Roses, playing to a full house in Twickenham, as opposed to South Africa playing in front of 36 000 people last Saturday at Murrayfield, are going to throw but everything at South Africa and shoot for shock and awe tactics.

A veritable fight to the finish. The first team that gets in its tries and points will have the upper hand.

The South Africans are clearly at their most vulnerable in a long time and look a worn out dishevelled lot, running on empty. We can deal with the why, in ten days, on their return home, with a post audit review, but the task at hand right now and this week, will be for South Africa to shake off this English fog and hit the afterburners straight from the kick off.

No mistakes, no margin of error, clinical and efficient in passing, kicking and tackling the poms with bone crunching tackles.

If a player is off and not firing, Peter de Villiers must replace him as soon as possible, as the English are waiting for the South Africans and they are bringing with them, their T-CUP.

“The number one rule for winners is that they avoid getting themselves stuck in unnecessary corners. Their decision-making process leads them to the point that when it is not necessary to be under pressure, then they won’t be. If you put a winner under pressure and say: ‘Tell me yes or no’, he will answer when it suits him. If there is an obvious corner they don’t want to be in, then they won’t be there.”

But why do such people want to be without pressure? Doesn’t that defeat the point of being a winner and defy the traits of bravery and intent?

“They want to succeed,” argues Yuda: “They are dedicated to the achievement. So anything that can threaten that accomplishment they will try to avoid. You may think this is like running away, but these [people] are the clever ones. If you can, avoid it. But, if not, go at it 100%! Why make a decision that could impact negatively on the quality of what you are doing?”

Sir Clive Woodward first brought Yuda into the limelight in 2000, where he used his database to create a computer programme with which Woodward’s England rugby players could hone their skills and attitude. Sir Clive was astounded by the depth and precision of Yuda’s knowledge:

“I found his insights stimulating, his conclusions amazing. His winning behaviours covered areas like identifying opportunities, decisiveness, time management, momentum, self-control and one-on-one situations. It was one of the most remarkable assessments of the competitive situation I’d ever heard.” [Sir Clive Woodward wrote in his autobiography, Winning]

The benefits of Yuda’s influence on English rugby were harvested in the most rewarding way — the 2003 World Cup, captained by Martin Johnson.

Many people know what it takes to lose weight and get fit, but knowledge alone is insufficient. It must be acted upon, and translated into action. And in order to become a “deliverer”, Yuda stipulates that you must possess the “Warrior Spirit” to jump-start your pursuit of glory.

“A warrior doesn’t need you to tell him to give 100%. Warriors are never satisfied. They are the kind of people that when they finish a game where they did well, five minutes later they will be sitting down thinking: ‘What could I have done better?’ They are always improving.”

There are some born warriors, and there are others who simply don’t want to be warriors, but most of us are in the middle, waiting for someone like Yuda to inspire us: “The idea is to create a person. Sometimes people lack the belief that they can become winners, but you can teach them. If you show them that they can do it, and if they start to achieve, it builds up self-confidence and self-belief.”

Never giving up until the whistle is blown is another key element to his thinking, not like Enrico Januarie booting the ball into touch to bring on the whistle of full time on Saturday.

I am always bothered by players kicking the ball into touch just before half-time and just before full time, instead of going for a quick tap and sprinting for the line to catch the opposition napping. Such actions are so defeatist.

South African rugby needs an electrifying jolt. We have become pedestrian and I fear on Saturday we are going to get an introduction to this pesky T-CUP policy.