Martin Corry came out fighting at the weekend, leading by example as Leicester sent Sale, the defending champions, to defeat in the opening round of games of the Guinness Premiership season. As the first shot in his campaign to retain the captaincy of the England team in the face of competition from several quarters, it was a performance he urgently needed.
Too often last season we found ourselves listening to Corry's explanation of yet another defeat while staring at the blood seeping from a wound on the bridge of his nose. That wound lasted all season, and its refusal to heal seemed like a symbol of the condition in which his team found itself.
Occasionally, it has to be said, we commentators take a secret pleasure in observing someone's discomfiture at close quarters. Not so with Corry, whose willingness to stand up and be counted, on and off the pitch, attracted nothing other than admiration tinged with pity. On the weekend's evidence, a summer away from rugby seems to have done him a power of good. Once again he was the figure whose honesty and guts persuaded Andy Robinson to give him the captaincy after injuries and retirement had stolen Jonny Wilkinson and Jason Robinson.
Whether there is more to Corry the captain than honesty and guts has long been the subject of debate. As last season's post-match interviews demonstrated, he is no great analyst of a game in which he has just taken part. But maybe the experience of several painful defeats, and some time to reflect, will have given him an extra dimension.
Under the eye of John Wells, England's new forwards coach, Corry will be hoping that he did enough in the victory against Sale to make his reconfirmation a formality. And yet nothing is certain in the world of Robinson's squad, particularly since the arrival of Rob Andrew as the RFU's director of elite rugby, with responsibilities for team affairs which are presumably known to himself and Robinson but are so far unspecified in public.
Wilkinson, Andrew's protégé at Newcastle and Andy Robinson's first choice as captain, seems to be on his way back. Given their intimate relationship with the former golden boy's career, the time may come when England's bosses will find it necessary to ignore the advice of Brian Moore, the former England hooker, to allow him a season-long rehabilitation in club rugby before exposing him once again to the pressures of life at international level.
Jason Robinson, too, has decided that his retirement from international rugby was premature and is indicating his willingness to return. If it seems less likely that the captaincy will come his way again, it may be that the head coach will welcome the game-breaking possibilities offered by his presence on the bench.
And then there is Pat Sanderson, who made an impressive entry into the side last autumn but was sidelined by injury when the Six Nations came around. In Corry's absence, Sanderson led England on their summer tour and by all accounts returned with his standing undiminished by a couple of heavy defeats.
From that field, Corry still seems the most likely choice. But what if this autumn's quartet of Twickenham internationals go badly? Defeats by the All Blacks and the Springboks would sound the alarm for next summer's defence of the World Cup. And at that point a familiar figure would loom large on the horizon.
Had it not been for a youthful indiscretion, Lawrence Dallaglio would probably have led England's campaign in 2003. His international ambitions remain undimmed, although his recovery from the removal of a metal plate from his ankle means that we are unlikely to see him in an England shirt this side of Christmas. But in a crisis, and with so much at stake, it might be that his vast experience and sheer ringcraft would force Robinson - or even Andrew - to lift the phone.
