Eddie Jones is seeing leaders emerging as his England side ramp up preparations for this year's Rugby World Cup in Japan.
England begin their final preparations for the tournament on Sunday when they face Wales in the opening Quilter International at Twickenham live on Sky Sports, with head coach Jones due to name his 31-man squad for the tournament next week.
Should the team led by skipper Owen Farrell go all the way and lift the Webb Ellis Cup in Yokohama on November 2, it would be the most inexperienced side in terms of caps to triumph at a World Cup since South Africa in 1995.
But while Jones, speaking to the Will Greenwood Podcast, admitted he would have liked more experience in his team, he is pleased with the way leaders like Farrell and other members of the squad have emerged.
"There is evolution for a captain, Owen is learning his trade and he needs support from the rest of the team," Jones said. "Leadership is something which evolves, it's never just there and there's not numbers you can put on things.
"It's the spirit, it's the endeavour and the way you relate to people and that can change from day to day - but, at the moment, are we going in the right direction? Yes we are.
"These young players have got this amazing opportunity to do something special for their country, their families and for themselves, and they're all grasping that opportunity."
Jones took over the team in November 2015 soon after England's group-stage exit from the last World Cup on home soil, where they suffered the fate of being the first host nation to fail to reach the knockout stages.
They now head to Japan as second-favourites behind defending champions New Zealand and while the squad are not yet at the stage of being self-sustaining, Jones is impressed with England's progress over the past four years.
"Whenever you take over a new team, teams have basically three stages," Jones told Sky Sports. "There are teams which don't have much ability to lead themselves and need to be directed, teams who are sort of in between and teams who are self-sustaining - and they're the best teams.
"What you have to do is work out when you come to a team what they need and if they're at the bottom stage where it's directed by the coaches then you need to keep evolving to be that sustainable team.
"We're not there at the moment, but we're getting there. We've definitely moved out of stage one and we're firmly in stage two, where the job of the coaches is to ask more questions, prod and see whether they're having the proper conversations and working hard to be together."