The outside temperature had dropped quite sharply overnight, but there was a much warmer mood at England's press conference in suddenly autumnal Versailles today. The tone was set by Brian Ashton, who left the morning training session early to announce a team for Saturday's crunch match against Samoa featuring no fewer than seven changes from the defeat by South Africa and containing a virtually untried combination at fly-half and inside centre.
Jonny Wilkinson and Olly Barkley have played only eight minutes together in those respective positions, when the latter came on as a replacement against France in Marseille last month, but Ashton seemed happy to have the chance to replace Mike Catt and Andy Farrell with two younger players who are returning from injury and will need to seize the opportunity to give England a more creative outlook.
Josh Lewsey, who will return to his favourite full-back slot after two matches on the wing, confirmed that at Saturday's post-match team meeting Ashton had invited Wilkinson and Barkley - "the decision makers" - to lay out the game-plan for the meeting with Samoa. The head coach is banking on their ability, together with that of Andy Gomersall, who replaces Shaun Perry at scrum-half, to get England moving after performances in the first two matches for which the most widely used term has been "stodgy".
Although Martin Corry had little to offer beyond a further expression of his puzzlement over England's failure to reproduce their training ground form in actual matches, the captain did describe the weekend team meeting as an "open forum" intended to make sure that no "whispering campaigns" could disrupt the squad's harmony. Others would suggest that only a victory on Saturday, followed by another over Tonga next week, will prevent existing rifts from reopening.
Barkley talked eloquently about the game while Wilkinson looked unusually relaxed and sounded happy to be back in action. The former golden boy's brow was distinctly unfurrowed as he spoke of how he had prepared himself to accept the possibility that his World Cup campaign was over when he turned his ankle in a training session two weeks ago.
How, someone asked, had he channeled the frustration? Did he get out his guitar ...
"And smash it against a tree?" He laughed. "No."
For Ashton, the changes represent a gamble. But the cheering news on the medical side and the knowledge - barring further accidents - of the shape and the nature of the team seemed to have dispelled the previous day's tetchiness as he did the round of newsaper and TV interviews. That was a relief, since no one - not even the fiercest critics of his team's performances to date - wants to see this good coach worn down by bad results.
