Three months ago, no one in the country would have accurately predicted England's starting XV against Wales. Luther Burrell, Jonny May and Jack Nowell in the same backline for the fourth Six Nations fixture in a row? The bookmakers would have offered marginally shorter odds on Jason Leonard agreeing to do Strictly Come Dancing.

It just shows how swiftly sporting life moves on, as well as how much the mindset of English rugby has changed. Most previous regimes would have been wary of such an inexperienced trio, none of whom had played a Six Nations game. "We're a bit like that as a country, aren't we?" suggests Rob Baxter, Nowell's head coach at Exeter Chiefs. "We fear people are going to fail rather than putting them in and being excited about seeing them succeed."

How genuinely refreshing it has been, consequently, to watch all three breeze straight in and charm a nation. The powerful, direct Burrell already has two Test tries, May has kept every opponent guessing and Nowell, the trawlerman's son from Newlyn with his ocean-inspired tattoos, has not looked remotely fazed. It begs two questions: what is it about England's setup that instantly transforms fringe candidates into eye-catching Test regulars and what happens when Manu Tuilagi, Marland Yarde, Christian Wade and co are back at full tilt?

The latter conundrum still hangs in the spring air but those closest to May, Burrell and the 20-year-old Nowell are unanimous about the former. "All he needed was the inner belief and confidence and I can see the coaches developing that in him now," says Peter May, a Swindon-based vet who coached his son Jonny in early mini-rugby days at Wootton Bassett RFC. The astute Baxter, a member of Stuart Lancaster's coaching team on tour in Argentina last summer, also cites the power of positive thinking.

"The last message in most meetings in Argentina was: 'Open your eyes and play what's in front of you. Don't be afraid of playing rugby.' It's a very good environment for these three guys in particular. That's what they're comfortable doing and that's what they're good at."

Equally pivotal has been Lancaster's determination to pick players on form, rather than what they achieved two years ago. It sounds simple but remarkably few Test coaches routinely do it. "If you select on form it's a recipe for success," Baxter argues. "The guys you pick will be feeling good and confident about how things are going to go. I know England have had the odd blip but look at the run of games they've put together over an extended period. Put form players into that and it shouldn't surprise people when it goes well. When you put the ingredients together in the right order it should work."

Wales will argue that class is permanent and all that. Perhaps, but showing faith in outsiders can also yield extraordinary results. People such as Paul Sharrock, who coached Burrell as a 10-year-old at Huddersfield RFC – "Even then he had power and pace although he's now lost the puppy fat" – will tell you precisely how long the latter has dreamed of playing for England.There is immense local pride that a player rejected by Leeds as a teenager has got this far despite demanding family circumstances and several dark professional culs-de-sac .

The 23-year-old May, similarly, never gained any England age-group recognition and was playing for Hartpury college third team as recently as 2007. "As a youngster he used to get very nervous before matches ... I remember he didn't want to play on tour once because the opposition looked really good," recalls May Sr. "He wasn't even put forward for selection for the county under-16 side because he was too small. But as a little 'un up against the big 'uns you have to be skilful and learn how to skip around people. That has benefited Jonny in the long run. My wife and I always felt the potential was there. This is what he was meant to do."

The qualities of perseverance and character that Lancaster regards as non-negotiable are similarly evident in Nowell. The farthest tip of Cornwall is not the easiest geographical starting point for professional athletes. "We were trying to work out the other day the amount of time Jack would have spent travelling up and down the road simply to get to Exeter," Baxter says. "People think it's been a meteoric rise but there's been a lot of commitment involved. Jack has always had a genuine love of rugby and that comes across in how he plays."

Nowell, nevertheless, was overlooked for England at under-16 level, as were Burrell and May. It strengthens the argument of John Fletcher, coach of the England under-18 squad facing Scotland in Glasgow this weekend, that identifying a definite Test player at such a tricky age is almost impossible.

Lancaster, he adds, is not just looking for fresh lumps of meat. "We just judge them on their ability to play rugby and their character. What Stuart wants is a good balance. Big, small, thin, fat ... it is still a game for all shapes and sizes. But if they don't have the character they won't get picked."

While the overlapping stories of May, Nowell and Burrell reinforce that point, all still have work to do to make next year's World Cup squad. Burrell's old mentor Sharrock believes a midfield pairing with Tuilagi would be extremely tasty, suggesting it is now a question of who plays alongside his former protege: "Out of them all I think Luther's the one who's got the most pace and he's also the best passer off both hands."

The view from the south-west, meanwhile, is that Nowell and May are only going to improve. "That's the exciting thing for England," Baxter says. "These guys are just starting to get their international wings. Given their age you'd expect that what's ahead is better than what's happening now. That's a nice place for England to be. I was listening to the radio this week and they were interviewing Geoff Hurst. With 100 days to go before the 1966 World Cup he hadn't scored a single goal for England. "England still have 17 games of rugby before the Rugby World Cup kicks off; there's a lot of time for these guys to get better."

This weekend will tell us more, but we already know Mike Brown and Owen Farrell are maturing warriors, that Burrell is inordinately grateful for his chance and that Nowell and May still play rugby with a joyous innocence. Mix it all together and you have a team that is increasingly more than the sum of its parts. Just as Lancaster always promised it would be.