One of the most significant moments for me in the Six Nations Championship this year was the meeting I had one-on-one with Brian Ashton after England’s defeat by Ireland. He came up to Newcastle, to our Kingston Park ground, it was one of the nonchampionship weeks, the week Newcastle Falcons were preparing for our club game against London Irish, the game where, agonisingly, I did my hamstring.

What was significant and, for me, encouraging was hearing where Brian’s mind was going. Together, we went through the tape of the England-Ireland game and I wouldn’t go as far as saying it was a eureka moment, but what he was saying about where England should be going was pretty much how I was thinking, too. OK, he was farther down the thought process than me, but I was on the same track.

What I am talking about is the change of game, or, more to the point, the slight change in mindset that we have seen from England these last two games. What was frustrating for me was the hamstring, because I was really enjoying what Brian was saying that day. What you really want as a rugby player is to be pushed, to be making decisions as fast as possible, to be testing and challenging yourself and gasping for air at the same time, and yet, when England decided to embrace all that, I was left again on the sidelines.

My main personal regret about the Six Nations was not the result against Ireland, where we seemed to be swept away by a superior force, but Italy. I’ve said before that if I could have another crack at that Italy game, I would do it differently — the balance would be different. Our options there were the short pass or kick and that made us too easy to defend against. We needed more options and for that, we should have taken more risks and put ourselves under more pressure. That is why the Newcastle meeting with Brian was so encouraging.

For me, this has been the story of these Six Nations. It’s shown how much this is all about balance, the balance between playing as the number on the back of your shirt dictates and playing anywhere, between playing to structures and playing with heads-up instinct. The teams who have been getting that balance right have been the ones doing well. England, of course, are striving for that balance and I am sure that the slight change of mindset has helped massively.

One famous game where England got the balance wrong was our World Cup quarter-final against Wales in Brisbane three and a bit years ago. We committed too many people to the wrong parts of the game. I got criticised for hitting too many rucks and, although in the same situation I would probably hit every one of those rucks again, England were left short of options and people to take them.

For me, that was a real lesson in balance — which takes me onto this Six Nations. It has been one of the most open and unpredictable, Ireland have been the most consistent and France, in glimpses, looked as though they could run away with it, but I don’t think the results or final table are a fair reflection of where all these teams are right now, particularly in the cases of Wales and Italy.

There were good sides and good skills but bad winning. Too often have teams had the lead and lost it, too often have they struggled to close out contests and all too often have we seen rugby where teams have done the hard work of getting up to the tryline but not known how to get over it.

This is the hallmark of sides who are not the finished article. Look at England: what is difficult is finding what works and sticking with it. Ireland have been able to do that, the rest of us not so much. I think Ireland have this balance best at the moment and, boy, did we feel it that day at Croke Park. But England are striving for that too and we might have lost on Saturday, we might have been blitzed by Ireland, but I think we have been making significant strides towards finding it.