Six Nations: Lewsey Considers Pause and Effect

There was a time, under the ever so slightly theatrical Sir Clive Woodward, when an England training session in the days before a Test would have come complete with wraparound plastic sheeting. Prying eyes were not welcome.

You needed to be positively vetted and swept for bugs before you could get anywhere near a tackle bag. And that was likely to be sheltering a security guard - you know, a sort of big plastic pillar-box shuffling along behind the press corps. Ah, the age of Pennyhill Park. It was all huge fun and utterly ludicrous.

But England then were the world champions, or on their way to becoming so. The title is still attached to them and will be all the way to the World Cup in the autumn, but they have slid, according to their coach Brian Ashton, into the second division of the international game.

Last Wednesday, the day after he announced 11 changes in the side to face France today, Ashton could be found with his team on the first, wide-open pitch after the entrance to Bath University. This was a bit more functional than the postcode might suggest, not World Heritage-sweet at all. If nothing else, the coach was continuing his work to take the bullshit out of England's rugby.

French camera crews were mooching around. They'd been asked to stop filming, but in the nicest possible way. Anybody could stand around and watch England reconfiguring themselves after the shock of Croke Park and another bruising weekend in the Premiership.

Over in Marcoussis, south of Paris, at the French National Rugby Centre, which does come complete with Cold War security systems, Bernard Laporte was wrestling with all of two problems. Sylvain Marconnet would have to be replaced after his freak accident on the ski slopes - he was bending to pick up his daughter after she fell on the gentlest of drag lifts, when snap went his tibia. But putting Olivier Milloud and Pieter de Villiers together would not count as a revolutionary measure. These props are tough old campaigners.

And would he choose Dimitri Yachvili, scourge of the English in the past three meetings with a tally of 53 points in his team's 73, ahead of Pierre Mignoni, the scrum-half who has been a revelation in the championship? He would. And that was the limit of the head-scratching over there.

Up on top of the hill outside Bath, it was a bit more complicated. England came apart in Dublin up front and went down by a record score. They need to regroup and expand all at once. With 11 changes.

All you can say about their training is that they threw themselves into it with gusto. Open sessions let you see that endeavour is not a problem. And let you hear it. It's amazing what a racket a modern rugby team makes. The re-ordering of the defensive line surely counts as noise pollution.

Afterwards we all made our way from the open fields through the sports halls to the bit of the university set aside for interviews. This was in the modern pentathlon area, in front of the shooting targets. Ho, ho. Dapper, but still dripping from the shower, came Josh Lewsey, plonking himself down without ado, his fitness levels better than ever, he would say later. The old pro. It still seems hard to accept that he is 30. Surely not.

But he has to be, since he was first capped all those years ago, in 1998 on England's Tour from Hell. Not in the 76...#8209;0 opener against Australia in Brisbane, where an 18-year-old Jonny Wilkinson first appeared, but as a 21-year-old in the centre in the second, over the Tasman Sea in Dunedin against the All Blacks.

Lewsey does not dwell on those days. Nor even on 2003 when matters were decidedly more victorious. Asked about the decline since then and the frustrations of it all and he says: 'It was a different team.'

But he knows the ropes by now. He pauses. 'There is one thing. Back then we had a team of very experienced characters. Everyone knew their roles, and if that meant they had to settle for being the best piano-shifters in the business, that is what they did.'

As compared with? 'Look, we're not going forward at the moment. After the Ireland game we had a - how can I put this? - a stern meeting. We knew we hadn't fronted up. We didn't do what we said in training we were going to do.'

Could he give an example? 'Well, for a start, only once did we go through more than three phases. And we scored. We were annihilated at the tackle area. We've got to deal with that. There's no blame culture in the team, but if we don't go forward... Or rather, if we do go forward we'll do OK. Look at Ronan O'Gara. Ireland put him in the armchair against us and look what he did. Now it's up to us to deal with it.'

And how are England dealing with it? Training looked pretty good. The shrug, the pause: 'In the week before games I've seen punch-ups in training. We've knocked lumps out of each other in training and then we've done nothing on the day. I've also seen us have a laugh and play touch rugby, and then been brilliant. And I've seen it the other way round.' Pause. 'We just have to go out and perform.'

He's good at pausing. Especially when, inevitably, the question comes up about his best position. In his 46 internationals - he's scored 21 tries, which is no mean strike record whichever the number on his back - he's been moved from centre to wing to wing to full-back, which is where he'll start against France. But where would he really, really like to play?

He knew it was coming and we knew he knew, but he paused and we all sort of tittered together. 'Horses for courses,' he attempted. But, seriously?

'No, it does depend. Take France, who I reckon have the fastest line-speed in the backs in the world. If they're coming up in a blitz defence you're going to be able to create opportunities, but on the inside of it, say, with the winger coming infield. Or outside it. But not through it. So, where would I like to play then?

'All I know is I don't want to be seen as a hole-plugger. But it does depend on how our team are going to play and who against. I suppose the answer is that I just want to get my hands on the ball a lot and be busy around the field. Back three? Look, England have no end of really classy back-three players, but they are not key in general to winning. At the risk of repeating myself, it all comes from the front five.'

It has sometimes struck me as odd that Lewsey's name has never entered the mix when it comes to picking a captain. He's got the natural flair to survive any transition to any style; he's the most ferocious competitor you'll ever find; he's in peak nick. Why not?

I am told he is considered a bit headstrong with his opinions within the confines of the changing room. But I thought it might be worth posing the question. Pause. 'I, er, don't think it would necessarily be that easy or good to captain the team from the back three.'

Gavin Hastings, Serge Blanco, Ieuan Evans, Jason Robinson? 'OK, that's an argument I've just lost.' Mike Catt? He was relieved to be back on track. 'Right. Catty is Brian Ashton's protege. I went to Bath when I was 18 and Catty was the playmaker even back then.'

Might he not be a little old now? 'OK, but he can be other people's eyes and ears now. That's what you want from a 12, to help his 10.'

You see, he can play the diplomat. But he can also show his frustration: 'There were times against Italy when I, never mind the crowd, was bored.'

But it's only because he cares. 'The reason I'm still playing - and this may come as a bit of a shock, but I don't care - what motivates me isn't all the glory, but just to play as best I can. I do get frustrated, but that's the way it goes.' Pause. 'Let's not forget that if we beat France, we're right back in the mix. This is pivotal.'

And in this pivotal game England need to release one of their pivotal players. Without pause or hesitation or bullshit, Josh Lewsey would then, as he always has done for England, deliver.