Robshaw stamps authority on team's new identity

A lot of people didn’t give us a chance. On Saturday we played an Irish side that hadn’t lost to England in eight games, and we won well. It shows how far we have come in such a short space of time. Just compare the Scotland win — which, I think we can admit, was an ugly win — to the Ireland game, you’d think it was a different team. The momentum is fantastic.” As far as Robshaw is concerned, there is one overriding reason for the new sense of forward propulsion in the England squad: the man in the coach’s box, quietly analysing his team’s every move. “It shows what Stuart [Lancaster] has created,” he says. “He has developed this environment where we want to perform for each other, for the shirt and for him. He’s given us the freedom to go out and express ourselves. He hasn’t done it alone; the other coaches have been fantastic. But Stuart’s been great.” Were the members of the Rugby Football Union who are tasked with appointing a successor to Martin Johnson as England supremo to listen to the man closest to the action – the England captain – there would be no doubt in their mind: Lancaster, the interim coach, should be gifted the job immediately. Of course, a cynic might suggest Robshaw would say that. A man who didn’t make the cut for Johnson’s World Cup party, who watched the embarrassment Down Under unfold on television; indeed, who had only turned out for his country once before, is likely to be loyal to the coach who gave him such sudden elevation. Except what Robshaw says touches a nerve. In order to reconnect with their core constituency, England needed to regroup, refocus, re-engage. After the arrogance of ‘dwarfgate’, the bullying of chambermaids and stinking out the field of play, a little bit of humility was required in the lilywhite shirt. Lancaster has achieved just that. It is a turnaround writ large in the character of his captain. Robshaw is the polite, engaging, respectful face of England’s new rugby order.