IF new England boss Eddie Jones needs any advice about successfully enacting a post-World Cup rebuilding project, he could do worse than pick up the phone and speak to some of the players and coaches at Darlington Mowden Park.

Jones named his first England squad since last autumn’s tournament ended in bitterness and acrimony earlier this week, but Mowden have already dealt with their own case of post-World Cup blues and emerged much the stronger for the process.

The All Blacks’ Northern Echo Arena training camp was rightly hailed as a huge success for the region, but Mowden paid a price in terms of their ability to perform on the field.

With their own ground out of bounds, the National League One side were forced to play five of their opening six matches away from home. They suffered five defeats, and after last season’s successful stabilisation in English rugby’s third tier, questions were raised about Mowden’s ability to survive again.

Three months on, and those questions have been well and truly answered. When Mowden entertain Wharfedale this afternoon, they will attempt to record a tenth successive victory. The transformation has been staggering, and while a high concentration of home games has clearly helped, there is also a sense of Mowden living up to their billing after an unexpectedly shaky start.

“We had a lot of new boys that came together at the start of the season, and it takes a bit of time to gel,” said full-back Jamie Barnard. “We had a lot of long trips at the start and it was difficult, but we knew as soon as we hit our stride that we’d be something dangerous for other teams. We seem to be showing that on the pitch now.

“We always knew we had another couple of gears to go through. It was just about putting everything together because we were doing some things well, but some things not so well.

“The coaches identified what wasn’t so strong, and we worked on that. We seem to be putting more complete performances together now. I’m not saying we’re the finished article or anything because we can still get better, but we’re certainly getting up there.”

As a result, Mowden can look forward to the final 12 games of the season with any fears of relegation already banished. Promotion is probably a bridge too far given the 21-point gap to league leaders Richmond, but Danny Brown’s side have shown enough in the last couple of months to suggest Championship rugby is a viable ambition in the medium term.

Beyond that, who knows? But after leaving his native Nottingham to move to Darlington 18 months ago, Barnard remains excited by the extent of Mowden’s ambition.

“When I met the coaches before I signed, they were talking about how ambitious the club was,” he said. “They talked about a successful club with ambitions of being higher and playing in the Championship, and potentially even higher than that.

“I think that’s the way it’s going. We set ourselves a goal last year and achieved that, and we’ve set ourselves another goal to improve things this year and we’re well on our way to achieving that too.

“We’ve been playing very well, and I think we’re probably the form team out of the majority of the leagues in the country at the minute. We just need to carry that on to the end of the season now, and then we can take some time off and set some new goals for next year.”

As part of a Mowden backline that has developed an exciting, expansive brand of rugby, Barnard is well positioned to extol the qualities of his side’s attacking play.

Given that he doubles up as the club’s strength and conditioning coach, he is also ideally placed to discuss the work that goes into ensuring Mowden’s players are able to hold their own in a league that has mirrored the trend for increased physicality that is apparent in all levels of the game.

“It’s my job to make sure the lads are fit and ready for a match day,” explained Barnard. “It’s about devising programmes for them, and speaking to the coaches to see what they want.

“If they want the lads to put on weight, then I’ll have to change the programmes to reflect that. Ultimately, the gym is a supplement to playing – it’s all about getting the boys fit and fresh for a Saturday.

“But the boys are getting bigger, faster and stronger, and the collisions are so much more brutal now. The game is so much more powerful, and you have to be able to handle that.

“We try to get on the front foot against teams and pin them back, and then we can play the kind of expansive game we’ve been playing in the last nine or ten weeks. We need to run teams around because in terms of our skills, I’d put us right up there at the top of the league.”