The class of 2024 staged an England’s Got Talent night at their recent training camp — but now Steve Borthwick’s men must bring the X Factor to Twickenham.

Leicester double-act Ollie Chessum and Freddie Steward are England’s latest answer to Ant and Dec, as the squad’s new social secretaries.

The talent show helped a new group of players let off steam as well as form tighter bonds, even if some of the acts “got a bit weird”, according to captain Jamie George.

Head coach Borthwick will judge his players all he likes, but the Twickenham crowd will always have the final say.

England were booed off the pitch the last time they played at HQ, in the 30-22 defeat by Fiji in August’s final World Cup warm-up match.

Borthwick’s side had previously suffered their record Twickenham defeat in last year’s Six Nations, being ravaged 53-10 by France last March.

Jump back to the end of 2022, and home defeats by Argentina and South Africa cost Eddie Jones his job. England’s fans could not identify with their team, and the Red Rose men did not even recognise themselves, either.

Borthwick’s side exorcised some demons by gaining revenge over both Argentina and Fiji at the World Cup, then so nearly toppled eventual champions South Africa in the semi-finals.

However comprehensive a new start Saturday’s Twickenham return represents, George admitted that England still owe their fans a prime-time viewing experience.

“As players, we’ve got a responsibility to put the performance onto the field and put in a performance that people are proud of,” said George.

“We spoke on Monday evening about Twickenham and the emotion around this game. A meeting for us on a Monday would normally be speaking about gameplan. We did touch on that, but in the evening it was solely based around Twickenham, which really set the tone nicely for us for the week.”

England’s Girona talent show included Ethan Roots performing the signature dance from Napoleon Dynamite, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso pulled out the Carlton Banks dance from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, while Chandler Cunningham-South and Oscar Beard teamed up for a High School Musical duet.

England’s young stars can ill-afford to treat Saturday’s Wales clash as any kind of audition, however, for fear of the players missing their marks.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland rarely sends teams onto the sport’s biggest stages only to then fluff their lines. The master director will be ready to pull off another performance to remember in an, at times, happy hunting ground.

But this is a Wales squad missing so many of its previous leading men, boasting instead a callow group determined to become household names.

For all the talk of England’s new era that led to five debuts in last week’s 27-24 win in Italy, Wales have 147 fewer caps in their starting XV than Saturday’s hosts.

England vs Wales

Key battles

Maro Itoje v Dafydd Jenkins

Two locks alike in mixing brawn and brains, but set vastly apart in terms of experience. Saracens star Itoje will win his 78th England cap on Saturday, while Jenkins will be claiming his 14th.

That Wales’ 21-year-old Exeter lock is already Test captain speaks volumes on his rise and further promise.

Itoje has turned from young tyro into world-class pack totem, however, and knows exactly how to unsettle, then subdue, his direct opponents.

Fraser Dingwall v Nick Tompkins

Saracen Tompkins has developed into Wales’s all-court centre, mixing fine distribution with sufficient physicality to cut it in the Test arena.

Dingwall can do worse than look to Tompkins’s example as to how to add gainline success to a game based more on creativity and vision.

For far too long, England have failed to develop a No 12 that can thrive in covering all bases. Dingwall will hope to end that hiatus.

George Ford v Ioan Lloyd

Fly-half Ford pretty much already operates as an auxiliary backs coach. He does not even turn 31 until next month, yet already boasts the experience and nous to act at the level of a top-ranking coach.

He will be desperate to make the No10 shirt his own in the coming weeks, while Lloyd is earning just his fourth cap and is only a part-time 10. Has all the skills, but must add prudence to the attacking prowess.

Ioan Lloyd is a full-back who can operate at fly-half taking the No10 shirt, with Wales looking to build on last week’s rally from 27-0 down, still only to lose 27-26 to Scotland in Cardiff. Lloyd hardly put boot on ball when pressed into service last week off the bench at 10, while England are aiming for a run-first mentality under Borthwick’s new, expanded attacking game.

Should the heavens open, as predicted, both teams will have no choice but to indulge in an old-fashioned slug-fest, however. While potentially uneasy on the eye, such a grinding battle would still offer a first look at this much-changed England side’s tight-game abilities.

George Ford will win his 93rd England cap — and the Sale fly-half is still only 30. The masterful tactician is in an England set-up without Owen Farrell for company and competition for the first time ever.

Farrell’s decision to step away from Test duty has opened up a battle for the 10 shirt, and Marcus Smith’s calf injury has allowed Ford two straight starts.

Ford was dubbed England’s next Jonny Wilkinson some 15 years ago, only for Farrell to quickly receive the exact same billing.

From Leicester to Bath, back to Leicester then onto Sale, each of Ford’s reinventions have endured longer than some of his peers’ careers — and yet his peak still appears ahead of him.

Perhaps it is time for England to step out of Farrell’s shadow and into Ford’s focus.