Fin Smith is the man tasked with delivering a quantum leap forward.
The 22-year-old, with seven replacement appearances, totalling 122 minutes of Test action, to his name, starts at fly-half against the Six Nations favourites.
Fortunately he has broad shoulders.
Smith made his debut for Worcester at 18, lost his first 10 games for Warriors and then saw the club go bust at the end of his second season.
Since then he has twice steered Northampton into the play-offs, winning the Premiership title last season.
Still it is a bold call. Marcus Smith was the future once too.
Now, after eight straight starts in the 10 jersey, the Harlequins playmaker is shuffled back into his unfavoured and unfamiliar full-back role.
The theory is clear.
Fin Smith is a more conventional 10, playing flat to the line and finding holes with his selection of pass and breadth of vision, rather than Marcus’ hot-stepping individual brilliance.
It is hoped he will give centres Henry Slade and Ollie Lawrence more of a platform. With fellow Saints Alex Mitchell at scrum-half and Tommy Freeman and Ollie Sleightholme on the wings, Northampton connections should help the team click.
Against a French team that kick for distance, rather than to set up aerial duels, Marcus Smith’s ability to pick his way through a broken field will be either a deterrent or a weapon.
Elsewhere the back row is beefed up with the inclusion of Tom Willis, and the bench, which had won a cumulative total of only 81 caps against Ireland, has the experience of former captain Jamie George, with 97, and Elliot Daly, with 69, to guard against England’s customary last-quarter fade.
That’s the theory.
Whether it survives contact with France’s mix of the balletic and the brutal though is another thing.
Captain Antoine Dupont’s game appears to have been elevated to yet another level by his time with France’s Olympic gold-winning Sevens team.
Last weekend’s win over Wales was the mercurial Toulouse star’s 24th straight victory as a starting scrum-half in the 15-a-side game – a run stretching back to France’s quarter-final defeat by South Africa in October 2023.
Matthieu Jalibert is a fly-half with devil to his game and a point to prove after being overlooked.
Full-back Thomas Ramos has been dead-eyed off the tee. Wings Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey have bullet pace.
