RUGBY/Six Nations Championship: Coaches who change one-third of a team on the evidence of just one game are very impatient, short of luck or extremely angry. England's Andy Robinson is not given to sharing his innermost emotions if he can possibly help it but the depth of his dismay at his side's display against Wales finally became apparent yesterday.
Had he just been mildly let down in Cardiff there might only have been a couple of injury-related changes to his starting XV to face France, with Julian White's neck problem ruling him out and Lewis Moody's return from hamstring trouble "a given", to borrow the coach's own phrase. Having studied the tape, though, he has come to much the same conclusion as the critics and effectively admitted his selection for the Wales fixture was fatally flawed.
Given the similarly grim repercussions last autumn, when the lack of a recognised kicker on the bench against Australia cost England dear, Robinson is hardly being flattered by the harsh glare of hindsight. As for picking the 18-year-old Mathew Tait, showering him in superlatives and then, as far as the public are concerned, jilting him after one cursory date, not even the man responsible attempted to dress it up yesterday as far-sighted management.
England's rejigged team is unquestionably better balanced than the one that took the field at the Millennium Stadium.
If the return of Martin Corry comes with a slight caveat - the Leicester number eight has not played for six weeks after dislocating his elbow - the back row now has a bit of extra ballast and experience which, in turn, has allowed the talented young Tigers scrumhalf Harry Ellis to start for the first time.
And out in the midfield, to Charlie Hodgson's relief, there will be another recognised kicker in Olly Barkley, who can act as a kind of safety valve should the pressure become too intense.
It is not to say England will automatically win but having failed to score a try in a Six Nations game for the first time in five years, even some members of their own squad concede that retaining the status quo was not an option.
The 23-year-old Barkley, for one, is eye-wateringly honest about his team's 11-9 defeat last weekend.
"I think we lacked rhythm and pattern," he said. "We seemed to be at sixes and sevens for most of the game and really lacked the cohesion a team needs to possess. It was one of the worst performances I've seen from an England side in a long time.
"What you saw at the weekend wasn't what we were about. We were narrower, less exciting and more predictable than we usually are. We'll definitely try and alter that on Sunday."
But if Barkley sounds as though he has it all mapped out - "We weren't getting enough decent field position in Cardiff and I knew, when I came on, that we had to push them deeper into their 22 . . . had the game gone on five more minutes we might have seen a different result" - Robinson knows he has strayed into dodgy territory.
If the coach has to make a further raft of changes for the Ireland game a fortnight on Sunday it will be a serious admission of failure.
Meanwhile, France flanker Serge Betsen has been cleared by a Heineken European Cup disciplinary committee to play in Sunday's clash.
The 30-year-old had been cited for an incident in a European Cup match between his club Biarritz and Wasps on January 15th.
Betsen, however, pleaded not guilty when he appeared before the disciplinary committee. Wasps cited Betsen after England centre Stuart Abbott broke his leg in a collision with the Biarritz flanker.
Guardian Service
FRANCE (v England): P Elhorga; J Marlu, B Liebenberg, D Traille, C Dominici; Y Delaigue, D Yachvili; S Marconnet, S Bruno, N Mas, F Pelous (capt), J Thion, S Betsen, S Chabal, J Bonnaire. Replacements: W Servat, O Milloud, G Lamboley, Y Nyanga, P Mignoni, F Michalak, JP Grandclaude.
England (v France): J Robinson (capt); M Cueto, J Noon, O Barkley, J Lewsey; C Hodgson, H Ellis; G Rowntree, S Thompson, P Vickery, D Grewcock, B Kay, J Worsley, L Moody, M Corry. Replacements: A Titterrell, A Sheridan, S Borthwick, A Hazell, M Dawson, H Paul, B Cohen.
