England turn to 2003 World Cup winners to inspire turnaround in form

England are to take advice from some of Martin Johnson’s 2003 World Cup winners as they look to rebuild from the ruins of their Guinness Six Nations title bid.

Resounding defeats by Scotland and Ireland have seen England drop to fourth in the table and they have fixtures against Italy and France left to emerge from the slump, having entered the tournament with an 11-Test winning run.

In a blow to preparations for the final fortnight, British and Irish Lions scrum-half Alex Mitchell has been ruled out by a hamstring injury sustained in the 42-21 mauling at Allianz Stadium last Saturday.

A pre-planned dinner with nine members of the squad that lifted the World Cup 23 years ago has now taken on greater significance with head coach Steve Borthwick instructing his players to mine them for insights.

Johnson, Lawrence Dallaglio, Phil Vickery, Jason Leonard, Ben Kay, Richard Hill, Lewis Moody, Paul Grayson and Will Greenwood will aim to rally Borthwick’s men at the event on Tuesday night.

The dinner has been arranged by positions with Moody, who in October announced he has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, hosting a table for the back rows.

An important topic of conversation will be how Johnson’s England bounced back from their Grand Slam near-misses in 1999, 2000 and 2001 to go on to claim the sport’s greatest prize.

“The purpose of this is to learn from their experiences. They had setbacks. They had moments where games didn’t go the way they wanted them to,” Borthwick said.

“They had moments in games in that 2003 World Cup where it wasn’t going the way they wanted it to and they found a way through it. I look forward to those players sharing their experiences with our current players.

“The coaches are going to meet with them first. Then a group of senior players will meet with them. And then we will all have dinner together and have a chance to chat and learn from their experiences.

“We have a number of topics and areas I want them to discuss. What I’m keen to do is let the players explore and discuss with them and share their thoughts.”

Following a review of the Ireland collapse, Borthwick pinpointed the failure to take their chances, a crippling 24 turnovers and a drop off in intensity as the core reasons for possibly the worst performance of his tenure.

If England are to mount a revival, they must do so without first choice scrum-half Mitchell, who lasted 24 minutes against Ireland and has been ruled out for a “number of weeks”.

Jack van Poortvliet, who replaced Mitchell against Andy Farrell’s side, is favourite to start at scrum-half in Rome with Raffi Quirke called up to the squad as a replacement.

Centre Ollie Lawrence is a doubt for the visit to the Stadio Olimpico after receiving a knee injection after making his comeback from the same injury against Ireland.

Eight players have been released back to their clubs and will be in Premier Cup action this weekend, with George Furbank and Chandler Cunningham-South in particular having the opportunity to play their way into contention against Italy.