Owen Farrell looked genuinely bemused when asked about his emotional response to regaining the England captaincy for Sunday's game against Argentina, as if the concept, even the word, had never entered his consciousness.
"Emotion?," he asked with a furrowed brow, followed with a pause lengthy by even his usual news conference standards.
The reporter tried again, suggesting that coach Eddie Jones had mentioned that Farrell's body language when dealing with referees was not always beneficial and that the "calmer" approach of the famously laid-back Courtney Lawes, who took over the role for the Six Nations and summer tour of Australia, perhaps worked better.
"I wasn’t in any place of expectation and the big thing that has come from these past two weeks and the time in Australia is how much we are trying to grow our leadership and how much we can have a better impact as a group and that is the most important thing for me," he said.
Since his initial appointment in 2018 Farrell has worked closely with Will Carling, who became England's youngest captain at the age of 22, but was again reticent when asked about changes he may have made to his approach.
"There are endless people that we can talk to but the main thing is the feel for when you’ve made a mistake and how you want to get better," he said.
"As a captain I've worked hard on it so I hope I’ve got better. The challenge for me is obviously the way that I play the game, the way I present myself at times when I'm playing... it's just sometimes making sure that you’re giving off the right message.
"But there are different captains all over the world. There have been really calm ones that are good and some who are explosive ones who have been really good as well. I want to be me and I want to work on how I be a better me."
Despite playing brilliantly for Saracens at flyhalf this season, Farrell will line up at inside centre with Marcus Smith at flyhalf. Like the Barrett brothers with New Zealand, Jones wants him in his team - and will find a way.
The Australian said he had not shown any disappointment when losing the role, adding: "Every time I've coached Owen Farrell you get 100 per cent.
"Having coached for a while at the top level, I don't think I've met a player with more competitive spirit than him. There's been a few good ones and certainly he would be in the top three. He has an unbelievable desire to win, leads from the front and brings people with him. George Gregan and John Smit weren't bad either.
"He wants to be captain but we asked him for the Australia tour to come back and just play hard because he hadn't been in the team for a while after missing the Six Nations. He did that and, with Courtney unavailable, the opportunity to captain the side is there. He's taken it but we haven't had an elaborate conversation about it."
Having brought Farrell back, Jones did seem to accept that the team might still benefit from diverting from his sometimes abrasive approach, saying that the players would work out during the match who would talk to the referee and when. "We have a strategy in place," he said.
"The referees now have a very focussed gameplan of what they want to achieve and we've got to help them achieve that. The players have got to work out on the field how to help the referee."