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It’s a sad old story when the most enjoyable moments of last weekend’s Calcutta Cup battle at Murrayfield were the frequent TV cutaways to Scotland coach Andy Robinson giving an Oscar-winning performance as the world’s angriest man. In his playing days he was known as ‘Growler’ but there wasn’t much growling here: near demented hysteria, flailing arms, and lip-readable damnation of the referee and all his works. He was one step away from banging his head on his desk. And you couldn’t really have blamed him. The referee allowed England to get away with a whole heap of skulduggery at the breakdown, Dan Parks hit the post twice and a Scottish victory would have had a poetic justice. But this was a brutal game: rugby as war not sport, and not much fun either apart from a frenzied last ten minutes when both sides seemed to forget their battle orders.

Johnson has built an England in his own image. But when everyone is looking for contact not space, it makes for a gloomy spectacle. That’s why anyone who loves the sport should be hoping for a France victory over England in Paris in Saturday’s final game of this rather forgettable Six Nations. French coach Marc Lievremont has come in for some heavy critical fire, not least at home, for his fiddly selections but he has built a superb squad, clearly aiming at next year’s World Cup (Les Bleus are the only one of the top five who haven’t won the William Ellis trophy). And this year’s Six Nations will be a tasty bonus en route. Watch out for the magnificent centre partnership of Bastareaud and Jauzion, and how well they are liberated by France’s sublime scrum half Morgan Parra, whose sheer rugby intelligence is a lesson to anyone in Johnson’s side.