Innovations such as prison visits and live scrummaging are providing the former captain with food for thought as he gets ready for the autumn programme

Chris Robshaw has been to a few dark places during his Test career but nothing to match his visit to a maximum security prison in Argentina earlier this year. The most fired-up Pumas team at Twickenham this weekend will still be less intimidating than the seriously tough hombres encountered in June by Robshaw and some other England colleagues.

Even walking into a South American jail was an eye-opener for Robshaw and his team-mates. “It was a pretty daunting experience going in, and we weren’t sure what to expect,” he said. “There were guys in there for all sorts. As you go through the barriers – the first one, the second then the third – and see the dogs on leashes and guards with machine guns, you’re thinking: ‘I don’t know if we should be in here.’”

The trip, however, yielded some of Robshaw’s most vivid images in a Test career that, coincidentally, began in Argentina in 2009. Since the prisoners have been encouraged to start playing rugby, made possible by the Try for Change Fund that seeks to improve disadvantaged people’s lives worldwide as part of Comic Relief, their health has improved and re-offending rates have plummeted from 60% to just 5%.

The 31-year-old Robshaw also witnessed at first hand the positive effects rugby can have on social cohesion and behaviour, with the inmates keen to ensure their availability to attend both training and the team’s monthly games outside the prison, watched by their friends and family.

“They were so warm and welcoming to us,” the Harlequins flanker reported. “The guys were getting kisses, handshakes and hugs from them at the end. We all assumed we would be stood on the side, just watching. But we were in there, playing touch, doing drills. Of course, we couldn’t understand each other but their appreciation for us coming in was massive.

“It was an experience in itself to go into a maximum security prison but [also] to do some good as well. It was great to see how rugby had an impact. That’s why we love the game because it can help people in all walks of life.”

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England have no plans to visit Wormwood Scrubs this week but the head coach, Eddie Jones, is a confirmed fan of anything that propels players out of their comfort zones. Commencing the week with a live scrummaging session against Wales in Bristol is merely the latest example, and Robshaw is among those who feel it could be beneficial. “It’s about doing things differently and making people uncomfortable so they can react quicker. It’s not normal but at Quins we did it with London Irish not so long ago and it was very constructive. I’m sure that this will be the same. We want a good hit out, and I’m sure they do as well.”

If there is one thing Robshaw himself remains keen to escape, of course, it is the shadow of the 2015 World Cup when, under his leadership, England bowed out in the pool stages. Among Jones’s first acts was to hand the captaincy to Dylan Hartley but the Australian remains hugely impressed by Robshaw’s subsequent resilience: “I still remember having the first coffee with him. It was a dark room at the Marriott in Twickenham. It looked like the world was going to end. It was an uncomfortable conversation but the way he reacted has been absolutely first class and he keeps on wanting to play for England.”

Jones has also been struck by Robshaw’s willingness to help up-and-coming flankers such as Exeter’s Sam Simmonds and Bath’s Zach Mercer, but has also made it clear he still regards Robshaw, capped 56 times to date, as his first-choice No6. England, however, need to settle on a back-row combination capable of beating the world in 2019, and deploying Courtney Lawes or Maro Itoje at blindside is another option open to the management.

Beating Australia and Wales in the buildup to 2015 did not help Stuart Lancaster’s squad when it ultimately mattered, but Robshaw accepts that England cannot afford to sit back this autumn. “Before the last World Cup we beat Australia two years running and then lost in the World Cup. Anything can happen and things can change, but you want to put a good run of form together.

“Eddie has spoken to us and said that we are in a good place, but it is now about kicking on and going to the next gear. We know how we want to play but it is about accelerating that.”