Owen Farrell has got away with it twice this autumn but we can be sure of one thing – he will not get away with it a third time. I wouldn’t say he’s getting a reputation, I would say he has already got one and the big fear for England must be that it ends up costing them in a match that really matters.

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Everyone will be watching him now, referees included. They will know the way that he tackles and I’m sure anything that looks remotely like what we saw against South Africa and Australia will be penalised. It’s creating such a furore all around the world and everyone watches the incidents and thinks: “You just can’t do that.” In the Premiership we will get pinged for it but Farrell does not seem to and World Rugby certainly does not want a situation where it seems there is one rule for one person and a different one for others. If it happens in a big match, it will be a killer blow for England because he is such an important player in terms of making them tick.

While it has largely been a positive autumn series for England, the one concern for me, and the area in which they can be found out, is discipline. If something is going to really cost them, it is going to be discipline because they do give away a lot of penalties. They have some serial offenders – Maro Itoje is one of them – and you just do not want to let that be a decisive factor in a game of knockout rugby. If you are giving away up to 12 penalties every Test match you simply are not going to win a lot of them.

On to the positives though, and Farrell establishing himself as the first-choice fly-half is one of the biggest ones to come out of these matches. I think Eddie Jones will be really pleased, too, with how England overcame the setbacks of losing Billy and Mako Vunipola – Mark Wilson and Ben Moon have been superb and that says a lot about the environment in the camp.

But more than that, what I can see now is how England are adding to the traditional staples of their rugby. The set piece has been great, the breakdown has been much improved but England have always been a solid team defensively. They will know though that you have to score tries and against Australia especially, albeit a Wallabies team bereft of any confidence and intensity, I could see an ability to break teams down.

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Farrell is a great decision-maker and tactically he and Ben Youngs were on the money with their kicking against New Zealand, but England are harnessing the power they now have to soften-up defences and then play more expansively in the last 20 minutes. If you have Joe Cokanasiga coming off his wing, Manu Tuilagi and Kyle Sinckler going up the middle, then Mako and Billy going round the corner it will be really tough to defend.

You may not see it in the first 20 minutes but having to soak up those big ball-carriers wears defences down towards the end of games and creates fatigue. Then England can look to go wide, bring Elliot Daly into the game more, maybe bring George Ford off the bench, and really up the tempo. It is something we have seen a lot from New Zealand in recent years and England look like they are trying to follow suit.

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He has been a bit quiet at times but against Australia we saw exactly what Jones wants from Daly. He has speed and acceleration and can take advantage of broken fields and disconnected defensive lines, fulfilling the role that Damian McKenzie does for New Zealand. If you have that threat on the pitch then you can live with a few dropped high balls out the back because it is so dangerous.

But the challenge now is whether they can do it in a knockout situation. Can they maintain that belief and confidence when everything is on the line? Can they not just rely on the set piece, territory, wet-weather game but move the point of attack as fast as they can? I have seen it this autumn, but it has only been glimpses so far.