After their defeat by Italy, the England squad boarded a train in Rome and travelled to the northern Italian city of Verona, famous as the setting of Romeo and Juliet.
It was familiar territory. England head coach Steve Borthwick had brought his squad there for a “heat camp” in the build-up to the 2023 World Cup, when temperatures had soared above 40 degrees. The conditions at the Payanini sports complex, home of Verona Rugby Club, this week were more clement, but the intentions were the same.
Rather than flying back to London from Rome, then spending four days back at Pennyhill Park in Bagshot, where they have been based for the last seven weeks and then flying to Paris, Borthwick felt his players would benefit from a change of scenery.
With back-to-back away games, this would replicate a World Cup scenario. The facilities and the welcome at Payanini are first class but more importantly, it would give the squad time together to foster bonding away, from the glare of attention, and in a beautiful setting. Just a couple of days before their arrival, the 2,000-year-old amphitheatre, had been the venue for the opening ceremony for the Paralympic Winter Games.
When the logistics for the trip had been put in place, there would have been a hope that England would have been in the hunt for the Six Nations title. Indeed, Borthwick declared as much back in January at the tournament launch.
“Two weeks ago, we met as a team and I spoke to them about how the last seven Six Nations championships have been decided on the last round of fixtures,” he said. “On 14 March we’re playing against a brilliant France team in Paris. We want to be in a position in that game to get what we all want to achieve. We want English fans flooding across the Channel to get there and watch that game. The only way you get to that point is taking care of every step along the journey.”
Successive defeats by Scotland, Ireland and Italy may have laid those ambitions to waste, but what has remained constant is the attention to detail to the journey. Title-chasing France, who have played the most dazzling rugby of the championship, had to make do with a trip to the opera house in Paris to see a Romeo and Juliet ballet on Thursday night as an escape from their training base in Marcoussis.
For the 2024-25 season, the Rugby Football Union spent almost three times (£62.9m) on professional rugby compared to Italy (£21m), and yet it could not prevent the historic first defeat at the Stadio Olimpico last Saturday. Louis Lynagh, the former Harlequins wing who was a fringe member of the England squad in 2022, was asked on The Ruck podcast last week about the difference between the two set-ups and he described the food in the England camp as “other worldly”. “Chef Tom is unbelievable,” he said.