Eddie Jones sprung his first surprise on the England squad during their first off-week of the Six Nations by leading them to training, only to end up at a 10-pin bowling alley in central London.

With the players dressed up and ready to go for one of the gruelling training sessions that Jones had promised on Tuesday, the 25-man squad retained by the head coach this week instead enjoyed a bonding session in the morning before embarking on the planned training session in the afternoon.

The idea of giving players some downtime to enjoy off-field activities has been one employed at Saracens since Jones worked as head coach there, and defence coach Paul Gustard revealed it was two players from the north London club that stood out during the bowling session, albeit for very different reasons.

“The squad went 10-pin bowling as a change-up,” Gustard said at their London training base for the week in Kensington. “The boys thought we were going to do some forwards’ units and backs’ units. They had aqua recovery at 8am and they were dressed in their rugby kit and they got on the coach to go to the school for units. We turned up at a bowling alley and there was chicken and bits pieces like that and coffees and what have you. We did a 10-pin bowling competition.

“Unsurprisingly Owen Farrell was pretty good – quite competitive. It wasn’t who was good, it was who was really bad and that was Maro Itoje without a doubt. He was awful.

“He was embarrassingly bad – he needed rails. Jack Nowell needed a rail once but Maro was awful – he couldn’t get it down the lane.”

Any Italians hoping that the in-form forward might be on the verge of a bowling-induced meltdown will be left disappointed though. “He seemed to get over it pretty quickly,” Gustard added.

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There’s method to the madness, even if Itoje won’t particularly like his bowling ineptitude being revealed to the masses – though it’s a relief to see that the 22-year-old who has so far taken everything international rugby has thrown at him in his stride has a weakness and is human after all. What Jones, Gustard and forwards coach Steve Borthwick are creating along with the rest of the coaching team is the kind of club mentality that comes from spending time off the pitch together as well as on it.

Building relationships between the players will transfer to their ability to work together and fight for one another on the pitch, which in theory will lead to better performances – the kind of performances that produce a 16-match unbeaten streak.

Gustard revealed that the England squad were given a pleasant surprise on Tuesday morning (Getty)

“Obviously we have the fallow weeks and days together as a group. We have minicamps we have not always done before, we have tours and we get together a bit earlier for minicamps,” Gustard adds. “We get together for preparation. We’ve been very outgoing – that’s not to say that the previous coaching group weren’t – in spending time with the players outside of international windows, so we want to try and foster as much relationship-building as we possibly can.

“Whether we’ll ever be a complete club – [it’s] very unlikely, but when the guys come in, I think they are energised to come into this environment.”

Itoje's 10-pin bowling skills don't quite match up to his rugby talent (Getty)

One squad member who has been at the forefront of the squad during the implementation of these bonding experiences has been the fly-half, George Ford, whose future was settled today when his return to Leicester Tigers from Bath was announced, with the 23-year-old due to return to Welford Road at the end of the season.

Ford has silenced questions of his ability to perform at Test level with a number of strong displays, and the maturity he showed to guide England in their Six Nations victory over Wales at the weekend – not to mention spark the counter-attack that resulted in Elliot Daly’s match-winning try – is all the more credible given that he has been trying to finalise his future plans beyond the summer.