TOP MARKS FOR MARCUS
Supreme Smith is star man as England show artistic side in Rome
ENGLAND had promised to light up Rome and that is what Ellis Genge did yesterday when he produced a pass a fly-half would be proud of to set up a try for Jamie George.
It was that audacious assist by the Leicester prop, masquerading as a No10, which really summed up the creative spirit of this stop-start performance by England, who were so determined to cut loose and did so in patches.
But most of the illumination and inspiration was provided by Marcus Smith, named man of the match after engineering this five-try, bonus-point win.
It had been a difficult week for Harlequins’ playmaker prodigy and for England in the aftermath of the defeat against Scotland.
The post-mortems focused on how Smith had been replaced in the final quarter at Murrayfield and how Eddie Jones’ side had collapsed in a heap after his departure. Well, this time there was no departure and no collapse.
Smith played the full 80 minutes and was not removed even when George Ford was sent on for a late cameo. The fly-half touched down early on, threatened constantly and — perhaps taking his cue from Genge’s act of handling brilliance — conjured a try for Elliot Daly with a sublime, flat pass across three stranded defenders.
England secured a predictably emphatic victory to ignite their championship campaign, in front of several thousand travelling supporters at the Olympic Stadium.
Bold forecasts that a shock was on the cards turned out to be misplaced. The Azzurri remain chronically limited and this was the first lock-out England have achieved against them — a coup for defence coach Anthony Seibold to savour.
But Jones will know not to be carried away by this result. His new team are taking shape and on this evidence, that will not be a smooth, serene process.
There was lots of positive intent but there were plenty of lapses. Fluency will not come overnight. England would light up Rome for a while then find themselves plunged back into darkness as they tried to relocate the ‘on’ switch.
This occasion had an after-theLord-Mayor’s-show feel to it, given the heights of intensity, ferocity and artistry produced by France and Ireland in Paris on Saturday.
In that order, those teams are the current standard-bearers in Europe. England are racing to close the gap and more of their potential was evident yesterday.
Jones had picked a team designed to play with freedom and they did so with varying degrees of success. This was a glimpse of the ‘new England’ vision which has been taking shape since the autumn. With some time and polish, it might be quite something.
Better opponents would have punished every fumble and mix-up, but Italy were unable to do so, which meant England could keep plugging away in the same vein.
At the heart of this revamped side, Alex Dombrandt and Harry Randall were auditioning to form a long-term alliance with Smith. They both seized their chance.
Dombrandt did not maraud around in the wide channels, flicking out daring off-loads like he does at Harlequins, but he showcased his increasingly combative qualities by winning two turnovers. Those are the sort of contributions Jones has demanded from him. Boxes were ticked here.
AS for Randall, he took a while to settle but then managed to demonstrate the high-tempo threat he can offer. There were plenty of sharp passes from the base of rucks, or sudden darts past defenders, into space.
He brought energy and ambition and maybe, just maybe, he will have given Jones cause to ponder his scrum-half plans, rather than just revert automatically to Ben Youngs — who came on halfway through the second half to match Jason Leonard’s England Test cap record of 114 caps.
This win was not all about the newcomers though — some stalwarts also excelled. George, as the scorer of two tries, was in that category and Maro Itoje was another who caught the eye.
He wasn’t himself at Murrayfield and Jones made that clear, then switched him to the back row and challenged him to do better. Itoje responded in fine style.
After a disjointed start, strike one came in the 10th minute. Genge’s strong midfield carry created the momentum, Jack Nowell found space on the left, George had a charge then the ball came to Smith, who released Max Malins and took the return pass to score, before converting his own try.
Midway through the first half, the visitors doubled their lead, using pace and power. The pace came as Randall burst forward from a lineout. Then the power as Nick Isiekwe and Itoje made ground before George crashed over from a ruck. Smith’s extras made it 14-0. Plain sailing. Itoje had a try disallowed and Tom Curry had a near-miss too as England strove to ram home their advantage. But just before the break, the third try came at last.
Malins and Freddie Steward linked up to carve open the Azzurri defence and then Genge threw his stunning pass — high, long and precise, off his left hand — to George, who stretched to touch down again. Smith’s conversion made it 21-0 going into half-time.
Five minutes into the second half, England claimed their bonus point. From an attacking scrum in Italy’s 22, Smith took the ball on the left and his sharp, flat pass past three home defenders freed Daly to finish in the corner.
The game drifted after that, as
Italy summoned enough defiance to at least put England under some pressure at last. But with seven minutes to go, Jones’ side struck again.
Ollie Chessum pounced on an Italian fumble and the visitors had a promising platform. Sure enough, Smith’s pass sent Malins through a gap towards the posts and when he was held, he managed to offload for Kyle Sinckler to tumble over the line.
Another routine conversion took Smith’s tally to 13 points, while Italy did not manage a single one.
So England and their new posterboy are up and running in this tournament but urgent improvements will be needed before the serious business resumes, when Wales will come to Twickenham hoping to turn the lights out on their neighbours’ campaign.