From their first post-tour meeting with Steve Borthwick, England’s senior players have been emphasising  the importance of recapturing the fighting spirit that had underpinned their victory over Argentina. England played some great attacking rugby in Santiago del Estero but another collapse in discipline under pressure left them mounting a desperate late defensive stand. England’s 13 men made their tackles, rode their luck, and left with a valuable 31-24 win. 

In the build-up to the game, the England players had been furious with the travel demands placed upon them for their three summer Tests, particularly the additional legs between London and Liverpool for the game against Fiji and then Buenos Aires to Santiago del Estero for the Pumas clash, held three days after the two countries had met in the football World Cup. Borthwick had been drilling his players hard in training all week, trying to ensure standards remained high through to the final day of a long season. Things got feisty. There were flare-ups. Ellis Genge, for one, lost his rag with Borthwick. 

“I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s common, but it isn’t too shocking when it happens,” one senior player said  this season. “There was an edge to everyone in Argentina. We probably didn’t manage the pressure as a collective as well as we possibly could have. But we did a really good job at the time of making the main thing the main thing — using whatever ammunition you needed to get the job done.”

England are typically at their best in those situations, when they can build a siege mentality and strike on rebound. Think Brisbane 2022, when Genge ploughed furiously through Michael Hooper as England, with Eddie Jones one defeat from losing his job, rebounded from 1-0 down to win the Test series.

Think Argentina in Marseilles in different circumstances at the 2023 World Cup. Richard Wigglesworth spent all week telling his England players how much the world had written them off and then Tom Curry was sent off. George Ford took over, driving England to a win against the odds and one of very few victories under Borthwick against a team from  above them in the rankings.

But coming home from the summer tour, England knew they would be arriving cold into a Test against Australia. The discussion was this: “If we can win off the back of fight and scrap and character, and some amazing individuals, then when the rugby stuff clicks, which it has  in parts, and not across 80 minutes, then we’re in the money. How do we generate that edge so that we don’t need an external situation to come in and drive it? Those conversations [after the tour] are so, so important. The most important thing now is that we are very, very aligned.”

England’s leadership group has come under scrutiny. The World Cup winners who went into camp during the Six Nations discussed at length with Borthwick their concerns that the senior players were not all pulling in the same direction. Fast forward to yesterday and they presented a united front after criticism in The Times of Borthwick’s regime, his manner and his empathy. 

Among the revelations was the story of Joe Lewis, the analyst, who resigned after being chased for clips while on personal leave after  a traumatic death in the family. Lewis was recruited by South Africa, where he was reunited with Felix Jones, the former England defence coach who had also resigned his position without a guaranteed job to walk into. 

Jamie George, Maro Itoje and Ollie Chessum called a team meeting yesterday  and then mounted a vehement defence of their coach. George said he had hundreds of examples of Borthwick’s human touch, most recently last weekend when the England coach was the first person that he contacted to discuss a difficult personal situation. He rowed back on his previous criticism of the way Borthwick sacked him as  captain. “Steve has every bit of our backing,” George said. “We cannot wait to represent Steve in the most positive way because we’re going to show how much we care about him.”

England’s leaders were looking for an edge, for something to stoke the fires and  have found it. “It is galvanising, 100 per cent,” George said. “When someone comes at one of our own, we are going to fight to protect them. That is genuinely across the board. 

“We have meetings weekly with Kevin Sinfield, and a lot of time Kev’s messaging comes back to looking after people and standing up for team-mates and people we respect. That is what I think will happen now. The timing of the article is trying to be divisive. I don’t see a world where it does that to us.”

And so, England are out to prove a point against the Wallabies. And they do so with the strongest team that Borthwick has been able to select all year. The loss of Tom Curry to injury is a blow but it might work in England’s favour on this occasion. Ben Curry, statistically the best jackalling back rower in England, returns to the side after a long injury lay-off in order to combat the pilfering threats of Fraser McReight, which are so important to Australia’s game. 

Like Curry, England have waited two years to get George Furbank back into the side. The Harlequins full back will form a 10/15 playmaking axis with his former Northampton Saints team-mate Fin Smith. Furbank was selected to play against South Africa in the summer but dropped out with appendicitis. On Sunday he will slot into an exciting back three with Tommy Freeman and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso. “Fin and George Furbank have played together an awful lot at club level and unfortunately we haven’t had that opportunity too much at Test level,” Borthwick said. 

“I like to have two players able to distribute ball. We’ve got players of talent outside in that backline and we want to be able to have the ball to attack both sides with.”

Henry Slade has held off competition from Joe Marchant and Will Joseph to retain the outside- centre jersey, starting alongside Seb Atkinson, in a team selected less on Gallagher Prem form and more to reflect Borthwick’s desire for continuity and reward those in possession. 

The return to fitness of Fin Baxter, who has played only 100 minutes of club rugby since returning from a ten-month layoff, and Will Stuart is huge and has paved the way for a return to the so-called “Pom squad” bench, which was the hallmark of their success last year. 

England have five British & Irish Lions on the bench, including a front row of Genge, Stuart and Luke Cowan-Dickie plus Henry Pollock, who is covering wing, and Marcus Smith. George Martin is being held back to make a impact and Greg Fisilau is in line for his debut.

The pressure to make a winning start to the autumn, with the All Blacks to come, is huge. And the Wallabies will be looking to get under their skin, to challenge whether the unity is real or whether any cracks exist in this England team.