Still, the right centre partnership evades England. Kyle Eastmond and Brad Barritt were solid against New Zealand, but never really threatened their opposite numbers too much. Much has been made of Owen Farrell not giving them a good platform from which to attack, which is true in part, but more than that they missed someone who would get them on the front foot.

Barritt is a fine defender and a more than competent attacker, which often goes unnoticed, but he does not strike fear into the opposition. In fact, very few of the England team do. Jonny May might, in time, but for now England lag behind other teams in that regard – almost every other top nation has at least one player who you see on a teamsheet and think “he can win the game for them”.

Manu Tuilagi is that man – Dan Carter himself has admitted as much in the past. Substitute him for Barritt and suddenly defences have so much more to worry about. Eastmond would be his ideal partner – imagine his quick feet committing his own man and making the 13 hesitate for a second, before giving the ball to Tuilagi to run at a weak shoulder. Weak shoulders do not stop Tuilagi.

This would make life easier for Farrell, too. He has come in for a lot of criticism for standing too deep against New Zealand, which is partly fair, but the truth is his ball carriers weren’t getting over the gainline and this makes a fly-half’s life twice as difficult.

Compare that to New Zealand. Even if the likes of Sonny Bill Williams and Kieran Read weren’t making eye-catching line-breaks, they were still making four or five metres every time they got the ball. This leaves the defence scrambling backwards, rather than waiting on the front foot to charge up into the fly-half’s face. It is much easier to attack a line that has been moving backwards.

Tuilagi is the man that can do that for England. The challenge now is keeping him fit, because when he is he has to be wearing that 13 shirt. The fear is that he is going to become one of those perennially injured players who never reach their potential for England (see also Croft, T and Rees, T, amongst others).

And so to this weekend. England need a win. There is unrest amongst the fans, reaching levels it hasn’t for a while. Accusations of favouritism for certain players is being levelled at Lancaster and his coaches.

How do you quell this sort of murmuring discontent? You win. During the Six Nations, when England won all but one game, very few were complaining. Now, the same players who orchestrated the national side’s run of most complete performances for some time – Dylan Hartley, Tom Wood, Danny Care, Owen Farrell, Mike Brown – are being lambasted for not living up to the standards they set themselves then.

Lancaster now faces the ultimate dilemma of the international coach: does he stick with those that have performed well in the past year, or twist and give the unexperienced but in form options a chance?

He is not usually one for knee-jerk reactions, and that is set to continue this weekend with Anthony Watson for the injured Semesa Rokoduguni the only likely change. All indications are that he will give the side that impressed for half of the game against New Zealand another chance to do it for the full 80 minutes this time.

This is unquestionably the right call. Last weekend was England’s first game since June, and to expect them to beat a New Zealand team who have been together for months was never really realistic. With another week in camp under their belt, and the errors from that game analysed, they should put in a more cohesive performance against South Africa.

And really, it is vital that they do. To go zero from two at a stadium you are hoping to make into a fortress a year out from the World Cup is far from ideal, and also leaves morale in tatters ahead of what are, on paper, two easier tests against Samoa and Australia, but what in reality will both be tricky assignments if there’s no win this weekend.

What a joy it was to watch a Scotland side play enterprising rugby at the weekend. Greig Laidlaw was a revelation – I’ve certainly never seen him play with such abandon and flair. Argentina were poor, certainly, but that hasn’t stopped Scotland from putting in turgid, uninspiring displays in the past. Indeed, there have been more important wins over the likes of Australia and South Africa, but never with such an exuberant performance.

Their reward is a game with New Zealand. Obviously no-one is expecting them to win this, but put in another good performance and avoid it being a complete rout, and people will be happy. Follow that up with a win over Tonga similar to that against Argentina, and this will be one of the most positive Scottish autumns for some time.

By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43

Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images