Earlier this month, England were wondering where all their scrum halves had gone. Now they have not only seen a confident first start from Richard Wigglesworth, the Sale Sharks player who scored a try in the 24-13 win over France on Saturday, but they have a clutch of young contenders knocking on the door.

Throw in the possibility that next month Harry Ellis, who has not played since damaging his left knee last May, could be in action once more for Leicester and the garden is distinctly rosier. As a former scrum half, Brian Ashton will have returned from Paris anxious to see how good Danny Care’s showing was for Harlequins in their victory over Saracens on Sunday evening and England’s age-grade coaches will tell him about what they have in the pipeline.

Ashton, the England head coach but formerly the national academy manager, knows about Care from the latter’s days in the Leeds academy. Now 21, Care has had to wait patiently for his chance at Harlequins behind Andy Gomarsall and Steve So’oialo, of Samoa, but a run of appearances has seen him blossom and Gomarsall, for all his disappointment at his omission from England’s Six Nations Championship squad last week, will not recover his club place easily.

But Care is not the only talent on the horizon, as was emphasised in England’s significant 24-6 win over France in Friday’s under-20 international. England have not always flourished in junior internationals but, with the world under-20 championship to be staged in Wales in June, they are making up for lost time. They are unbeaten at this level, although they have yet to play Ireland, last season’s grand-slam winners, (the two countries clash at Kingsholm on March 14) and Nigel Redman, their coach, was elated with their showing in front of 20,000 at the opening of the new Grenoble stadium.

His team’s scrum half on Friday was Ben Youngs, who has had senior experience with Leicester, and Joe Simpson, of London Wasps, offers excellent back-up, helped in part by the game time he has had with Blackheath. That Redman has Johnny Arr, of Worcester Warriors, at his disposal helps to illustrate the depth now being created across all positions at junior level, even when individuals such as Alex Tait, of Newcastle Falcons, Miles Benjamin, of Worcester, Greg Gilland-ers, of Leicester, and Calum Clark, of Leeds Carnegie, are unavailable because of club commitments.

“It’s brilliant that they’re involved with their club senior sides and I hope we’ll have them available for the world championships,” Redman said. “But at the same time, our other lads were exposed to a superb atmosphere in Grenoble, a great atmosphere with all the noise you get in France, a match of great intensity.

“We have a group who want to work hard, who are very humble and who just want to get on with it. We have a good captain, Hugo Ellis [the Wasps No 8], but there are a number of leaders on the field.”

So far, Redman’s charges have beaten Wales, consistently successful in junior games regardless of their seniors’ record, at home, and Italy and France in away games. They travel next to Falkirk on March 7 to meet Scotland expecting a big home pack but also looking to the development of individuals such as Noah Cato, the Saracens wing, and his club colleague, Alex Goode, now settling into his stride at fly half.

Goode’s goalkicking - three penalties and a conversion – alongside tries by Cato and Alex Corbisiero, the London Irish prop, provided England with their points in Grenoble, although Redman was also delighted with the way in which they managed when Youngs was sent to the sin-bin and with the equanimity of Rob Miller, of Newcastle Falcons, who, no sooner than he had replaced Goode, was required to kick a penalty from halfway and did so.