England never suffer a crisis of confidence, ever. No matter how stark the situation, they always find the faith required to perform.
Even a team that won just three of nine matches in eight months before the Rugby World Cup, and stuttered past Samoa by just a single point last weekend, still has supreme self-belief.
Hooker Jamie George admits he still hurts when casting his mind back to defeats that happened three and more years ago.
So when he conjures images from the 53-10 hammering by France at Twickenham in March, or the 30-22 defeat by Fiji in west London in August, those reverses and more still sting.
But the Saracens hooker still genuinely has complete conviction that England will finally hit full stride at this World Cup, starting in Sunday’s Fiji rematch in the quarter-finals.
Lose in Marseille on Sunday, and England will go home with all their promises and pledges frankly falling flat. And still, England do not flinch.
“Our belief manifests itself from the top down, Steve Borthwick talks about it a lot,” said George. “We’ve got a lot of players who have been there and done that on some big stages.
“We’ve got players who have experience of a World Cup final and the latter stages of World Cups, players who are playing in their fourth World Cup.
“I think we’ve got a great group of senior players who are very open and honest with the younger players who this could be intimidating for.
“But this is why we’re here. The quarter-final of a World Cup is exactly where we want to be.”
George ranks among the eldest and most respected of statesmen in this England team. The 32-year-old will win his 83rd cap in Sunday’s quarter-final against Fiji, where Owen Farrell is expected to be moved to fly-half at the expense of George Ford and Marcus Smith potentially set to line up at full-back, replacing Freddie Steward.
Saracens hooker George admitted that over the years he has had to work to master the big-match pressure, but insisted England know exactly how to control their mental preparation.
“We can’t shy away from the fact that this is probably one of the biggest games we are ever going to play in,” he said.
“Early on in my career I tried to feel a certain way, or tried to be perceived to be feeling a certain way, or tried to shy away from emotions. I don’t see why you need to do that.
We can’t shy away from the fact that this is probably one of the biggest games we are ever going to play in
“We’ve got the space to speak to people, we’ve got a really open group and if people are nervous then that’s fine, or if people are excited, then that’s fine.
“But the most important thing for us is focusing on each week and that’s something we’ve done really well. Since we’ve been in France in particular we’ve got clear things to go after during the week.
“We try to be really clear what we’re going to go through each week and be as prepared as we can be. When you focus on that it becomes less about the enormity of the occasion.”
The nagging feeling around England’s supreme confidence remains that, for all their smooth progress to this World Cup quarter-final, the Red Rose men are yet to face a genuine, top-level challenge in France.
Argentina were undercooked and error-strewn, despite England’s fine performance with 14 men to prevail 27-10.
Japan are far from the force of four years ago and England saw them off with plenty to spare, while Chile are ranked 22nd in the world and were dispatched with a much-changed XV.
England had already qualified for the last eight before their well below-par showing in the last-gasp 18-17 win over Samoa last weekend.
For all the expectation that England will now deliver, the on-field evidence to date speaks to the contrary, and George certainly conceded so when it came to that stuttering performance against Samoa.
“Last weekend wasn’t good enough, it was poor,” said George. “We’ve had a really good, open, honest review and we’re very clear that some of the stuff wasn’t good enough, and our energy levels were poor.
“That’s inexcusable to be honest. Would we rather it happened then than now? Yes. Will we learn from it? Absolutely. You’ll see a very different England team on Sunday.”
