Chris Robshaw plumps for the word “rollercoaster” to describe his past year. But life has been an exhilarating, emotion-filled ride for the captain of Harlequins and England.
For all the highs he has achieved in the sport he has pursued religiously since childhood, Robshaw has had to deal with an equal measure of lows in his 27 years.
A braveheart on the field, he has been immeasurably brave off it, dealing with the death of his father, Alan, when he was five, defying dyslexia to progress at school and battling back from a broken leg and cruciate ligament injury to make his mark at Quins.
Over the past 12 months he has responded to the critics who pored over his exclusion from the British and Irish Lions squad that beat Australia and questioned whether he was the right man to lead his nation into the 2015 World Cup on home soil after some high-profile losses.
Dignified and determined, fearless performances have ended any debate over the latter with Robshaw becoming the third-most capped England captain with 24, behind only Martin Johnson (39) and Will Carling (59).
He attributes various factors to remaining strong and spirited, including a round of golf with Rory McIlroy a year ago at the BMW PGA Championship Pro Am where the pair reflected on the cruel vagaries of sport.
McIlroy himself had suffered a meltdown at the Masters – blowing a four-shot final-round lead in 2011 – and lost the world No1 status he had worked so hard to achieve with a horrible 2013 campaign.
“We had a good chat in a very relaxed environment,” recalls Robshaw. “A lot of guys have been through these tough times too and it was good to talk to Rory.
"We spoke about the Wales game, my experience in Cardiff where we lost the 2013 Six Nations, and South Africa (in 2012 when England lost 16-15 after Robshaw admitted making a wrong late call). We spoke about the Masters and his own situation, all these types of things.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people like Rory have got kind of similar experiences and it’s really all about how you get back out there and try to do well for the future.
“Adversity happens in all our lives, but it’s how you deal with it. You have moments when you mope, you are sad or you sulk, but you just need to come back.
“That’s when you need people around you to help pick you up. At times you need to get away from rugby and switch off, and encouragement from people around you, family and friends, allows you to do that, helps you get back into the groove.”
Robshaw has certainly got back into the groove.
He is hoping 2015 – a decade since he joined Quins – will be a defining year with prizes rather than pats on the back, having seen his club toil without reward so far this season and England miss out on the Six Nations title on points difference to Ireland.
“Of course you always want to achieve more and win more it’s as simple as that really,” Robshaw told Sport360° exclusively.
“To win silverware with Quins, supporting the club since I was a kid, and to come to them and go on and win the Aviva Premiership in 2012, I’m extremely proud of that. But it’s a mission to win something every year.
“And with England, we want trophies to show for our performances and results, massively. To lose out on the final day and finish second with eight points in the Six Nations, it’s very frustrating.
“You want to be remembered as a successful captain of a successful team. You always look at various captains in the world of sport and take little bits of what they say or do. But in all this, the most important thing for a captain is they want to be successful.
“They want to be remembered for winning things. At the end of the day, especially in international sport, we are judged on that.”
Quins take on Saracens in the Premiership semi-finals today, having leapfrogged Bath to secure their play-off place with a crucial 19-16 win last weekend. Despite facing the team that finished top of the league standings, Robshaw is hoping he can still fulfil his dreams.
“It doesn’t matter what tournament, what competition, you are in it to win it,” he says. “It’s been one of those years where we have been stretched a lot. Guys have put in a helluva shift when people have been away on international duty or injured.”
Getting into the Premiership final, though, would see Robshaw and key England team-mates Danny Care and Mike Brown miss the start of their eagerly-awaited tour of New Zealand in June.
But he adds: “Very much, the club matters first and you want to win trophies as much as possible. It’s unfortunate planning with the tour, but it allows us to use our squad a bit.
“We need to have two-three players for every position and we can compete if one is missing. That’s what New Zealand do really well. They can rotate, bring in someone else and still do exceptionally well.”
The tour will also assess whether England have a realistic chance of winning the World Cup.
“This will be the benchmark for us,” says Robshaw. “It will show us where we are and if we are really contenders.
“It’s probably the toughest place to play rugby. Rugby is everything to them and they are the No1 team in the world. But we are looking forward to it and I think we are ready to challenge.
“These are the places we want to test ourselves as a group, as individuals, and I believe it’s the right time for us.
“I feel everyone has grown in the England team, everyone has stepped up a gear in the last tournament. Guys have come of age, look at Brownie, Luther Burrell, Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes.
"It’s great to have a squad where you have so much competition and confidence in the players. They can only get better. I also think Danny and Mike have both gone to another level and taken their chance extremely well too for England.
“I look at both squads and see the young guys coming through at Quins and it’s exactly the same with England. I do get excited.”
