Even if it not quite Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of All Saints’ Church, there is no previous precedent for an international match being called off because of a strike. There have been plenty of threats including Samoa before their match against England three years ago and England nearly calling off their game against Argentina in a row over pay in 2000, but all have been resolved in time to allow the games to go ahead. Chances are that this will also be the case on Saturday, even if both sides seem to be digging their heels in at present.

Caught in the crosshairs of all this is Mouritz Botha, the former Saracens and England second row, who was appointed defence coach this summer. He had been planning out his perfect training session, installing a German flavour of the Saracens’ Wolf Pack, only to find that he had no players to coach.

As befitting someone who went from playing part time for Bedford Athletic while earning a living carpet cleaning and asbestos-stripping to earning 11 caps for England, Botha is relentlessly optimistic. Qualification for the World Cup is still in their hands. Just about. In the Rugby Europe Championship, the top team (currently Romania) automatically qualify with the runners-up (currently Spain) going into the repechage. After winning their first two games, against Romania and Belgium, Germany are fourth, five points behind Spain and seven behind Romania with four games to play.