The cones came out of the van at 6.40am on Monday, twenty-six of them, laid a stride apart across a wet car park in Surrey. This is the ground Shaun Edwards has chosen. England's new defence consultant, fresh from the France men's set-up, has opened his Red Roses tenure against a hedge.
Not a metaphor. An actual hedge, shoulder-high and clipped flat, running the length of the training base fence. Edwards is understood to regard it as the most disciplined line in world rugby: it does not drift, it does not bite in, and it has never once been turned.
By mid-morning the squad were running at it in waves. The hedge held. The hedge held again.
"He watched that hedge for twenty-six minutes before he said a word," a cone steward at the base said. "Then he asked whether it had any previous."
The WXV Global Series, the competition that sorts the pecking order of the best teams on the planet, is being fitted in around the hedge work where the calendar allows. Officials describe the fixtures as a useful chance to stay sharp between sessions.
