It's hard to credit England are in such apparent disarray, or to recall when they were at such a low ebb. Seven defeats in their last 14 Six Nations games, their worst championship defeat in 20 years, a six-day turnaround including a travel day - all compounded by wholesale changes in a completely remodelled team.

In wielding the axe uncharacteristically, and earning himself the unlikely sobriquet of the Butcher of Bagshot (where England are based) Andy Robinson has perhaps put his own neck on the line even more than if he'd just made a few amendments. For if England's campaign goes even more pear-shaped against Ireland tomorrow, it would surely reflect even worse on Robinson after such drastic action.

Matt Stevens is out of the game with a recurrence of right-shoulder problems, necessitating a recall for Julian White, who had been dropped, with Perpignan's Perry Freshwater called up to the bench, but that still leaves England with seven changes from the team that subsided in Paris.

More worrying, perhaps, is the news that the referee Joël Jutge has withdrawn injured and been replaced by Nigel Whitehouse. Anyone who watched the Welsh official referee the European Cup pool game between Leinster and Bath can only be concerned by this development.

Against Scotland, England looked utterly clueless with the ball, save for repeatedly running straight into ever-willing Scottish tacklers, especially marauding backrowers. They didn't even have much of a kicking game.

Against France, there was more of the same, only with more handling errors, but what really struck as the match progressed was how dishevelled looking their once-famed defence under Phil Larder became, with some players pushing up, some drifting in curiously dog-legged fashion.

Curiously too, Larder and backs coach Joe Lydon are deemed to be the management personnel under most pressure, amid a prevailing feeling that there's too much of a rugby league influence - once de rigeur.

Robinson, by contrast, is deemed to be on safer terrain at least until the end of the 2007 World Cup. Yet with many of Clive Woodward's old sidekicks still in situ, the whole set-up has long since looked stale and in need of an entire regime change.

Larder, an engagingly frank and typically direct-talking northern recruit from league, was once seen as the daddy of the influx of league coaches and the game's foremost defensive coach, but in contrast to one of his proteges, Mike Ford, his star already started to wane during the last Lions tour, when his approach did not sit well with some of the Celtic players.

"I'm confident I'm the right guy for the job and that I'm doing a good job," Larder said in the fall-out to the Parisian shambles.

"This has not shaken my belief in what I'm doing at all. This is a pressure job, it's the name of the game. You know that if you lose a certain number of games your position might be a little bit insecure. But I don't react to criticism from outside the camp, I react to a pretty awful performance. It was the worst performance I have been associated with."

Similarly, despite two games in which the world champions didn't even look like scoring a try, Lydon commented, "I am certainly aware of the criticism - we didn't win and we didn't score so it is not unjust. We have to take the pressure and criticism on the chin and as a coach I say I am responsible. The players put the shirts on but we do the preparation. You do question things. Are you doing things the right way? And the answer is yes."

The captain, Martin Corry, and most of the players, have leapt to the defence of the coaching ticket.

"The players are to blame, not them," he said this week. But then again, he would say that, wouldn't he?

Former English scrumhalf/wing Austin Healey, in his Daily Mirror column, has led the calls for regime change. Admittedly, the Leicester Lip has always had a tendency to hog the headlines, and his comments are hardly likely to influence the RFU, but even so some of his observations were fairly damning, not least his supposed insider information on the squad.

"There are some fine coaches in English rugby but unfortunately they are not coaching the England rugby team," observed Healey. "It is time that changed. Even before Paris I had concerns about the direction the England team was being taken - the absence of flair, the inability to create space, the over-reliance on forward muscle.

"But after what I saw on Sunday enough is enough. I thought France would win but that performance was as bad as I can ever remember seeing from an England team.

"The players do have to take a certain amount of responsibility, as coaches can't legislate for knock-ons, missed tackles, poor decisions and high balls not being caught.

"But the players looked to be lacking in enthusiasm, inspiration and tactical awareness and that is down to the coaches. The players look to be in a comfort zone. They look like they're not being challenged. I have spoken to a number of them and the consensus is that they're not sure what's going on. They think they get better coaching at their clubs and that for me is a big worry."

Imploring the RFU to step in, Healey added, "Without a doubt Joe Lydon isn't good enough to coach the England back line. Without doubt they need a new backs coach and I'd go as far as to say they need a new head coach and a new defence coach too."

RFU chief executive Francis Baron's vote of confidence in Robinson this week wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement, but it was more than his support for Larder and Lydon. Revealing that the pair are on rolling contracts and would be subject to an annual review, Baron commented, "We all have to meet our performance targets."

Those targets - four Six Nations titles, two with Grand Slams, between now and 2013 - merely look like sticks to beat the coaches with now.