England can turn around their Six Nations campaign – but only if they believe they can, says Faf de Klerk

FAF de Klerk thinks England can turn around their Six Nations campaign – but only if they believe they can.

And losing their first match in Scotland may turn out to be a GOOD thing.

Matthew PoverFaf de Klerk thinks England are still in with a good chance of winning – but it’s all about the mentality[/caption]

The World Cup winner knows what it takes to win the very biggest of matches, both at club and Test level, and it is all in the mind.

Eddie Jones’ men have the chance to right the wrongs in today’s trip to Italy.

And De Klerk – who has relied on his mental approach as he lives thousands of miles from his South African home – believes it is not entirely down to skill and athleticism.

The Sale Sharks star said: “In big games, mentality is everything.

“You have to mentally prepare yourself for bad things that could go wrong or good things that go right and how you deal with them.

“It’ll be great for some of the guys in the squad to go through a loss like that, to prepare you for going forward.

“That’s how you get your mentality, to know if you’re in that situation again how to deal with it better. If you do learn from it, losing that game can be great – that’s the important thing.

“You learn way more from losses than wins. That’s when you think about what you did on the pitch and in preparation – did you do things to be the best version of yourself on the pitch.

“Losing isn’t nice to take, but if you learn to deal with it, that’ll help you further on in your career.

“If you have that championship mindset, more often than not you’re going to come out with a positive result.

“If you don’t believe in yourself, you’re not going to succeed – and England need that mentality.

“People often just say it and can be a bit blase about it but they’ve got good leaders in the squad and there are a few youngsters there who’ll feed off them.”

De Klerk, who insists Jones hauling off Marcus Smith when England were winning was not why England lost, heard about the importance of mental health from 10 and 11-year-old children as Sale’s community trust delivered its Are you AO-K? program at St Winifred’s Primary School in Stockport, Greater Manchester.

He also had a glimpse of some talent of the future in games of tag rugby.

One player who has come from the Manchester suburbs to the England squad is clubmate Raffi Quirke, who he believes will get a Six Nations chance at some point.

He added: “When I speak to Raffi, he seems to love being in the camp. He’s willing to learn and is asking a lot of questions.

“It’ll be good for him and I think he’ll get his shot. He’ll learn a lot and he’s definitely capable of doing it. His mentality is so positive and being willing to learn will give him the edge over other players.”

Sitting among the children in Class 13 as they told how the last two years of the pandemic had impacted them, with kids writing down one thing they struggled at on a piece of paper, De Klerk did not need reminding of the importance of mental health.

And he told SunSport how important his own had been in recent years.

He said: “I’m lucky enough to have a positive mindset but there are days or even months when I have a tough time.

“It’s about learning to deal with it and getting good people around me that I can talk to. That always makes a massive difference.

“And I try to see how positive I can be in certain situations. Moving thousands of miles from home was a big challenge but I saw it as an opportunity.

“There were tough times but I leaned back on my parents, my girlfriend and religion – those things got me through them.

“It’s very important to teach kids about mental health. We all have issues along the way in our lives and being an adult I know how to deal with things.

“So the earlier kids learn about it, the better.”

Matthew PoverFaf said mental heath was important[/caption]

Matthew PoverThe players also showed schoolchildren the ropes with a game of tag rugby[/caption]

Matthew PoverBelieving that you can is key to winning, Faf said[/caption]