Eddie Jones praised his England side for getting their Six Nations campaign back on track with a win over Italy, but admitted they could have chalked up a “big score”.
England, who lost their opening game to Scotland last week, defeated Italy 33-0 in Rome and earned a bonus point after scoring five tries.
The visitors were in control for large parts of the game and they will be disappointed they did not win by more.
England were leading 21-0 at half-time, but Italy defended stubbornly in the second-half and prevented Jones’ side from running away with it.
“It was a good performance. We started the game well, got a bit of a flow, started the second-half well and defended well at the end,” said Jones.
“They are a tough team, they keep coming. If we were a little bit tidy in some of our work, in our running lines, our support lines and the breakdown, it could have been a big score. But we are happy with that, we worked hard for that, and now we move onto Wales.
“As we said to the boys, they (Italy) have played against New Zealand and France, and in the first-half they have been in the game. And they weren’t in the game today.
“I thought he (Marcus Smith) played well. Harry Randall did good things at the start and [Alex] Dombrandt had a really solid game.”
Smith, as Jones pointed out, was the man of the match and the Harlequins fly-half put in another impressive performance.
He got England’s first try of the match and proceeded to run the game from there, barely putting a foot wrong.
“We put a big emphasis on today, we were very disappointed after Murrayfield,” Smith said.
“Eddie spoke about the next job and we have put ourselves back in it with that win today.
“I’ve never played here before, there was a special atmosphere, with loads of England fans having come out. We had to put a show on for them, we were a bit scrappy and credit to Italy, but to score 33 points is always nice.
“To play alongside Harry [Randall] is special, we have a good connection off the field and I hope we have on it as well.
“We have loads to work on, we are still learning on our journey, but we will enjoy tonight and get back on the horse tomorrow.”
