“I’ve been in teams where there was a board beside the training pitch with a tally counting our mistakes,” says Russell Earnshaw, remembering a method he will never use himself. “No s*** - nobody got better.”

Wearing a bobble hat with a t-shirt and baggy shorts, Earnshaw does not necessarily have the look of one of the country’s foremost curators of rugby talent. The giveaway is that all of his clothes, apart from the high-top trainers, are emblazoned with a red rose - a point not lost on the teenagers arriving at North Bristol RFC for this one-day development camp for prospective England U17 and U18 players.

Alongside colleagues John Fletcher and Peter Walton, the casually-dressed, engaging Earnshaw wants to engender a relaxed atmosphere, both for the players and the good number of coaches - from schools and club academies - who will be watching the afternoon.

Prestige and opportunity are still palpable. In the space of precisely 152 days earlier this year, Marcus Smith went from making his England U18 debut against France to being named in a 37-man party for August’s senior training camp under Eddie Jones. As such, the precocious, prodigious fly-half stands as a very visible endorsement of the RFU pathway.