No one ever turns down a rugby trip to Rome in spring. At Heathrow on Thursday afternoon, men wearing plastic centurion's helmets and Julius Caesar costumes stood at the check-in desks, fiddling self-consciously with their togas while their cheeks burned. The England team, who disappointingly chose to travel in their normal leisure gear, can expect a good deal of noisy support at the intimate, tree-fringed Stadio Flaminio tomorrow.
Tucked away in their airport hotel, though, the more ambitious of England's players will be feeling the same mixed emotions as those faithful fans who booked their tour packages months ago. Instead of chasing a Six Nations grand slam, Clive Woodward's team find themselves entering the Eternal City as no more than eternal optimists. For one or two, at the end of a punishing season, this weekend's final championship game is less a Roman holiday than a serious case of mind over matter.
Can there be another professional sport in Europe which flogs its participants as hard over such a lengthy period as rugby union? Even the assistant coach Phil Larder has admitted publicly that some of the squad are exhausted, yet the domestic programme still has two months to run, followed within days by a long-haul tour to Argentina for all but a handful of senior Lions.
Prior to that stretches a migraine-inducing fixture list, involving another potential 15 Tests before the 2003 World Cup in Australia (or wherever) even starts. Martin Johnson said this week he could not remember a single summer when he had not either toured or had an operation. Never mind winning the World Cup, the real challenge is staying in one piece until it kicks off.
Discuss all this with Kyran Bracken, England's ever-polite scrum-half, and two things become clear. The first is that, yes, several of the players are weary; the second, which is bad news for Italy, is that they would rather run naked through the Trevi Fountain than let it show when they are on England duty.
Bracken, who famously engaged Eileen Drewery in an unsuccessful attempt to heal the back problem which ruled him out of the 1999 World Cup and inspired the heartless nickname "Kyran Broken", has even gone to the lengths of hiring a female Norwegian psychologist, who also works with dancers and skiers, to help him focus better before and during matches.
In his opinion player fatigue is "a big, big issue" which outsiders misunderstand. "Some of our players have been tired but people get confused between physical and mental tiredness. Do rugby players get burnt out? I'm not sure they do physically, other than when they can't recover from their injuries and keep playing. But mentally is another matter. That's where you get your highs and lows of form and it can be difficult."
Even the most committed and resilient of England's players, a category into which the oft-injured Bracken easily fits, have suffered over recent months.
"Sometimes you do sit down and think, 'Oh, no, gym again.' Sunday nights after you've lost are probably the worst, closely followed by Monday mornings. When you win going out to train is much easier. But no matter how tired you are physically or mentally, playing for your country is a huge thing. If you get picked you want to play, and that's it."
In other words, Bracken's 41st cap tomorrow will be no less valuable even if Italy are blown apart in a match rendered irrelevant in championship-winning terms by a French win over Ireland in Paris today.
"Every time you play for your country it's special. I don't care who you are or who you're playing against. Captaining England against Canada last summer, for example, was as important to me as any game I've played. Facing Italy is not a case of underestimating people or winding down. It's an opportunity to keep your place in the team."
At 30, Bracken still has enough mental stamina to want to sign a new four-year contract with Saracens, still not safe from the domestic relegation dogfight. He will go to Argentina, if required, and knows he cannot relax for a second if Matt Dawson and the younger Nick Duncombe are to be kept at bay. Having spent plenty of time in their positions himself, he does not need a gifted psychologist to guess what they are thinking.
"It's important there is competition for places. It's good for the team," he says loyally.
At the end of the day, though, England are storing up trouble if too many good men are running on empty when they resume at the start of next season. A stale centurion is no use to anyone.
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