Ruddock believes it is essential for a successful side to have leaders on the pitch in order to maintain the winning habit, especially in games where things are not going your way.

The biggest thing from my perspective, is that we have started to develop leaders,'' Ruddock said.

I spoke to the players before the England game in February, and I said that if we were really serious about going somewhere then it wasn't just going to happen through the coaching side, as good as people like Scott Johnson (skills), Clive Griffiths (defence) and Andrew Hore (fitness) are.

If you look at the England team that won the World Cup, they had Martin Johnson, (Lawrence) Dallaglio, (Neil) Back, (Richard) Hill, (Matt) Dawson. They are all leadership figures who could make good decisions under pressure, so we needed to start developing that.

We started to step back a little bit on the coaching, and we encouraged the players to start fronting-up in certain areas.

That is what has been the big step forward for me, seeing that confidence through leaders coming through in the team and starting to organise and run the show. It augers well for the future.