Martin Samuel: England are like boy scouts going into Scotland’s roughest boozer

Brad Barritt went round the room shaking hands before he sat down to speak. Phil Dowson used the word ‘sanguine’ to describe the mood of his coaches at Northampton. Owen Farrell insisted he would walk into the maelstrom of Murrayfield with a smile on his face.

And throughout there remained the impression that this reconfigured England side will be lucky to get out of Edinburgh Airport without having their cab money nicked, let alone return from Scotland’s fortress with a first win in eight years.

It was 2004 when England last won at Murrayfield. They haven’t even scored a try since. There is the counter-argument. England have travelled north since that day with teams that have been honoured by the Queen, experienced, storied groups of men peppered with OBEs, CBEs and MBEs, and all they have come back with is ABA. Absolutely bugger all. So why not go with youth

Ready England train ahead of their Calcutta Cup clash with Scotland

Except Stuart Lancaster’s team are not so much youthful as raw. Dowson is making his debut in the back row at 30, the same age as Mouritz Botha, the South African-born lock who will be winning a second cap. There are seven players in the starting line-up with caps in single figures, three who will be making their debuts, with two more playing for the second time.

The seven substitutes have 42 caps between them, 39 of which are in the possession of Matt Stevens. This is Lancaster’s biggest gamble. If England’s fresh faces are finding the ferocity of the Calcutta Cup too great, the only alternative is to throw on players with even less experience as five of the replacements will be making their debuts, too.

The inescapable feeling is of a boy scout troop about to walk into the roughest pub in Craigmillar, cheerfully brandishing a 50 note for tea and sandwiches. With the crusts off.

That image was not entirely dispelled by coach Lancaster, who talks boldly of the future, although his may not extend far beyond the final match of the Six Nations, against Ireland on March 17.

Ploughing a lone furrow: Stuart Lancaster leads an inexperienced team

It is a mighty job, erasing the memory of a toxic World Cup campaign in which rugby’s new reality and its dinosaur past collided head on.

Lancaster’s task has been to sweep out the remaining dust and present a shinier, brighter England to the world. The players talk of buying into a culture, but these ideas may be temporary and the word ‘interim’ attached to a job title is never helpful in establishing authority — particularly if results do not go well.

A coach attempting changes of such significance needs two things: permanence and victory. Lancaster is without the first, and requires the second if he is to carry the international game in England with him. Clearly, having given so many players a first cap, or a second chance, he will inspire loyalty and the mood within the squad seems positive. It always does, though.

Hang around training camps for 30 years and you will discover the mood is invariably bubbly and positive right up until the moment the first try is conceded, or the opening goal goes in or the captain loses his wicket cheaply again.

Given no concrete backing by the RFU, Lancaster must derive his authority from proof his ideas work. That means not going the way of recent English visitors to Murrayfield. Lancaster admitted that, in the circumstances, he would settle for a scrappy 6-3 win; more likely he would bite a hand off for it. The best England have managed in Edinburgh since Sir Clive Woodward was in charge was a 15-15 draw. Some would take that right now for England, with this team.

Long time coming: England have not won at Murrayfield since 2004

‘It should all be about fighting for the shirt, not what goes on around the shirt,’ insisted wing David Strettle, who has made a single appearance for England in four years. ‘A culture cannot be built solely on results. It has to be there if you haven’t got a game for three months because we need people coming into this environment to know what it is about. Everyone has to buy into it, not just one person, but the whole. You can’t focus solely on the end product; it is the culture that gets you that end product. But obviously, it’s easier if people can see the results going right.’

And impossible if they are not. A squad of Pollyannas insisting England are on the right track even if played off the park in Scotland will not convince anybody, especially as the next match is a trip to Italy and represents the proverbial kick into nothing. England could win in Rome and prove little; lose and the roof falls in.

The last England manager to be charged with affecting culture change after tournament failure was Fabio Capello in football. For the first six months it was a struggle. Players found Capello’s regime too rigid, too formal, too cold. They did not like long hours confined to hotel rooms or the strictness of meal times and daily itineraries. And then England won 4-1 away to Croatia, the team that had knocked them out of the last major championship. Overnight, Capello’s methods were accepted.

Challenge: Scotland will be determined to put one over on the Auld Enemy

Those rescued from the cold or given their big break by Lancaster may already be repaying that favour with vocal support, but England will still need to carry the likes of Toby Flood, Manu Tuilagi and Courtney Lawes, when returning from injury. The World Cup survivors must be convinced, too.

There are times when Lancaster appears the arch-motivator — to have a personal letter sent to each player by an inspirational figure in their lives is an idea guaranteed to stir emotion — and others when he lapses into marketing speak.

‘This is a team for now, a team for the future,’ he said this week. Beg pardon It reminded of the alien, Kodos, assuming the body of President Bill Clinton to ape political platitudes in an episode of The Simpsons. ‘We must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.’

Lancaster balked at the idea that his methods were ‘touchy-feely’ but there is definitely a desire to draw a line under the last hurrah of the old guard at the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

‘I’d hate it if people thought there were edicts,’ said Lancaster. ‘We want to create a common aim. I think there is much to build on. You don’t go from 10 wins in 13 and winning the Six Nations to nothing.’

Or from removing Scotland from the World Cup to being smeared all over Murrayfield by the same team 127 days later. So the inhabitants of England’s brave new world cheerfully hope, at least.