Eddie Jones has made it clear to several members of his Grand Slam-winning England squad that they will not make the tour to Australia in June unless they sharpen up their attitude.
The England head coach has identified "four or five" players whom he believes have got carried away with the team's success and let their standards slip.
There have been no face-to-face confrontations with the players, who are on club duty, and although the Australian refused to reveal names, he insisted that they knew who they were.
Jones also disclosed that he was actively looking into fast-tracking Ben Te'o, Sam Burgess's former rugby league second-row team-mate at the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Born in Auckland to an English mother, Te'o will join Worcester from Leinster at the end of the season. It a sure sign that Jones is looking to freshen things up.
"The team can't sit still," said Jones. "There's an old political adage, 'you want to fix the roof when the sun's still shining', and that's what we want to do. We've got to improve the team and find better, younger players who are faster, more agile, more skilful and more desirous. If you look at the 32 or 33 players we used for the Six Nations, 27 or 28 of those players have played with distinction [since then].