Last week the Bagshot vibe was characterised by selection mystification. This week it's recrimination, fear and self-doubt. Listing England have not yet found calm waters facing into the third game of an increasingly troubled Rugby World Cup.

Coach Stuart Lancaster was subjected to as much a cross-examination as an interview by an affronted media over his decision to drop George Ford.

Then, after Wales watered England below the waterline on Saturday, Ben Youngs verged off-message in assessing the crushing defeat.

“Maybe we weren’t good as we thought we were,” said the England scrumhalf.

Yesterday, therefore, was a day at their base, just outside Farnborough, to present a united front facing into a win-or-bust match against Michael Cheika’s Australia and to publicly proclaim faith in England captain Chris Robshaw, on whose shoulders scorn has been heaped.

It was Robshaw’s decision to kick for a lineout rather than to allow Owen Farrell’s sure boot earn England a possible draw with Wales.

The media has been scathing in its assessment, from the roaring Daily Mail headline of "Amateurs" to Will Carling condemning Lancaster as a former teacher who has created a schoolroom atmosphere.

Exhausted the thesaurus But the England players and assistant coach Andy Farrell had a well-rehearsed line. They were closing the book on Wales, drawing a line in the sand. Moving on.

They have, they said, exhausted the thesaurus and worn out the adjectives. Gutted. Crushed. Desolate. Wrecked.

“It’s done now, innit,” said the impish Richard Wigglesworth, casting out the grief and summing up the new game face England has assumed. “It has to stop today. We reviewed it. It’s done. It stops today. We learn to move on.”

He added that some people should have done better, but the things that were being said by columnists and pundits “piss me off”. But he would name no names “because I’d be doing what they are doing”.

Winger Johnny May acknowledged that England lost the breakdown in the last third and didn’t stay composed. Nonetheless, “I feel shocked by the result,” he admitted. “But we’ve got to learn the lesson.”

It was left to Andy Farrell to explain the management’s interpretation of a game that they had won and then lost to a bout of ill-discipline at the breakdown, a lack of leadership and questionable composure.

Headfunk Farrell, too, was swiftly moving away from the Welsh headfunk and the “devastation” of the result into a more, stoic, aggressive, forward-looking mode.

“All you can do after the disappointment of the weekend is recognise that you have another chance,” said Farrell. “It’s in our hands. We need to win at the weekend and win against Uruguay.”

There is also an injury threat hanging over Lancaster, but with some light emerging there. Billy Vunipola’s knee ligaments will not mend in time and he has been replaced by Nick Easter, who was called by Conor O’Shea on his way to Harlequins training yesterday morning.

O’Shea told the former captain to do a U-turn and head for Bagshot. The vastly experienced number eight is coming in for what will be his third World Cup.

Courtney Lawes is “still licking his wounds” and didn’t train, while Youngs has a swollen ankle that is on a wait-and-watch brief. They need to take part in training before Thursday to be selected.

Ben Morgan, however, is ready to play and centre Jonathan Joseph is also likely to be available to line out against Australia in a match now being characterised as no less than the biggest game that this group of England players have ever played.

The game of their lives, a game for the nation, it doesn’t come any more freighted with a country’s hopes. There has been nothing minimal from the hosts in this sorry saga.

“The performance is going to have to be absolutely huge, absolutely massive,” said Easter. “We will have to play with no fear, be physical at every single collision, come with a plan, get stuck into this lot both sides of the ball.

“The Pocock and Hooper scenario is going to be huge. There can be no shutting up shop. We have to throw everything at it. There is no backwards step this weekend.”

But that was not enough in the grounds of the Pennyhill Park Hotel as the England midfield was characterised to Farrell as one that could stop Wales for most of the game, and may stop Australia too, but also one without flair and imagination.

More delicately put, the thrust was that Brad Barritt, Sam Burgess and Owen Farrell are mules.

Farrell bridled several times, throwing the questions back.

“Is that how you see it?” he asked one English journalist.

“Yes,” came the one-word reply.

“I’d go back to 55 minutes at 22-12. You’d be pretty happy, wouldn’t you,” quipped Lancaster, before launching into a cry from the heart for the nation to wrap itself in the flag.

And there is no doubt that they will. They like nothing better.

“We need everyone behind us this week. We’re English. Do we want to do well in this competition? Of course we will batten down the hatches,” said Farrell.

Desperate “We are desperate to do well for this country. We don’t need to overplay this match against Australia. We know the ramifications.

“The players are gutted, but they have moved on. They are tight with each other. They believe in one another. That’s a decent environment to be in.”

Blindsided, it is now knockout rugby for the World Cup hosts, and the threat of ignominy. They never saw this coming.