England interim coach Stuart Lancaster has backed Chris Robshaw's appointment as skipper despite his lack of international experience.
Robshaw was given the nod to lead England in their first two Six Nations matches on Monday, with first-choice captain Tom Wood ruled out of the matches with a toe injury.
Wood may well take the captain's armband when he returns to the side but Robshaw has been given a couple of games to show what he can do, after being preferred to the more experienced Dylan Hartley and Tom Croft.
Robshaw has played twice for England - once in an uncapped Test against the Barbarians, before his proper debut against Argentina.
But those two games were back in 2009 and he has not represented his country at full international since, captaining the second-string Saxons last season under the guidance of Lancaster.
And the new coach has no doubts that Robshaw and the new-look side are up to the task as England look to bounce back from their World Cup debacle.
"In terms of the profile of our group as a whole, people would say we lack experience internationally," he said. "But the counter-argument is we've got a lot of lads who've got an awful lot of experience playing in the Premiership and Europe.
"Chris has done that and captained his side really well in a lot of big games. He's been a fantastic captain for Harlequins this season and obviously captained the Saxons last year during the Six Nations, so I trust him and I will know he will do a fantastic job."
England were woeful on the pitch in New Zealand last year, while the off-field behaviour of some of the members of the squad made front page headlines for all the wrong reasons. And there is a feeling that Lancaster is looking to draw a line under what happened at the World Cup with Saturday's Calcutta Cup clash at Murrayfield heralding a new era in English rugby with a number of the old guard now consigned to history.
The coach admitted that it has not been easy to decide who to appoint but feels that Robshaw will have a lot of support around him to help him through his first experience as skipper.
"It was a very difficult decision. But we slept on it over the weekend and we felt Chris was the right man," he added. "He's got great support in Dylan Hartley, Tom Croft, Ben Youngs and Ben Foden."