You would not usually expect to see international sports players in high spirits on your TV set the day after they have been part of a humbling experience in their country’s colours.

But there was something heartwarming, and reassuring, about seeing Mike Brown, Danny Care and the England captain Chris Robshaw cheering and clapping their Harlequins team-mates as they lifted the LV= Cup at Worcester on Sunday.

Even without their most celebrated players – the outstanding Nick Evans was also absent – Quins put on a real spectacle in beating Sale Sharks 32-14.

It was not the fact that they won the trophy, it was the way that they won it – a youthful side playing the expansive rugby and showing the good habits instilled throughout the club by director of rugby Conor O’Shea.

Whether or not they can retain the Premiership or lift the Heineken Cup in what promises to be a thrilling final nine weeks of the season, you just feel that Quins have found a recipe for long-term success – both in terms of the way that they play and the team spirit they have engendered.

In the wake of Saturday’s 30-3 Cardiff calamity, huge questions marks have been raised about whether you can say the same about England.

So superior in all departments were Wales that it is remarkable to think their defeat to Ireland in their Six Nations opener was their eighth in a row.

But history tells us that – while Stuart Lancaster clearly needs a rethink in certain areas – this should not blow his overall World Cup strategy out of the water.

In both 2000 and 2001, England stood accused of throwing away the Grand Slam with final day defeats to Scotland and France, respectively. Like last year and this, they lost just one match out of five.

They also lost to France the following year but that didn’t prevent Sir Clive Woodward, and captain Martin Johnson, from fulfilling their long-term goal of lifting the World Cup in 2003.

Lancaster has never hidden the fact that the World Cup is his target. His vision is for Robshaw and his friends to be celebrating at Twickenham on the final day of October 2015.

Saturday’s defeat may have been sobering, but this is not the time for that long-term planning to be thrown off track.