England cannot magic up giant ball carriers out of nowhere, so they have spent the past two weeks working on their offloading game and short passing by their forwards, as well as getting into shape more quickly so that the ball-carrier has more options, something that Ireland excelled at. In the first three rounds of the Six Nations England completed just 17 offloads; France, incredibly, completed 56.
England know their strengths are the mobility and dynamism of their back-five forwards, but that requires an unstructured game, based on winning contestable kicks and stretching defences by attacking the edges with a second playmaker, as well as pace.
They hope the changes they have made will allow them to exploit those ambitions, but all of it is worthless without intent. It is one of those non-negotiables and, as George revealed this week, a review of the players’ work rates during moments of the Ireland defeat did not make for comfortable viewing. The players know they have to run if any of their tactical plans are to come to fruition.
There has undoubtedly been some soul-searching within the senior leaders’ group of George, Ford, Maro Itoje and Ellis Genge. This is the time for them to stand tall and demonstrate to the younger players the standards expected. As I argued on Friday, there is surely a role for Owen Farrell to play in all of this as England edge towards the World Cup. What is certain is that England are going to rely on a small group of players in their mid-30s to provide the leadership in Australia next year.
In Rome on Saturday, England will look to the influence of Daly to rekindle the glory moments of 2019 as they seek to rediscover their potency in the red zone.