England produced glimpses of what they can do in attack as they eased to a 33-0 victory over Italy in the Six Nations.
It was to be expected, with Italy yet to ever beat England, but there were plenty of encouraging signs for the visitors in the bonus-point victory in Rome.
Marcus Smith was in inspired form, and got the first try of the match before Jamie George added a first-half brace.
Elliot Daly wrapped up the bonus point shortly after the break as England responded to last weekend’s defeat at Murrayfield with a much-needed win.
Kyle Sinckler added a fifth try late on, but it was a largely uneventful final 30 minutes and there was little sign of the ruthlessness that Eddie Jones called for in the build-up.
It was a slightly messy opening ten minutes from both sides, but the first try did not take too long to come.
Max Malins and Smith combined nicely out wide, and the fly-half went over for his second try of the Six Nations.
Midway through the first-half, the lead was extended. Brute force did the trick for England, with George then toppling over the line and leaving Smith with a simple conversion.
Maro Itoje thought he had got England’s third try, as he went over after a driving maul, but it was disallowed by the TMO after replays showed an infringement from Nick Isiekwe.
Right on the verge of half-time, George got his second as he popped up on the wing and finished impressively after a lovely pass over the top from Ellis Genge, with England going into the break 21-0 ahead.
They needed just five minutes of the second-half to wrap up the bonus point, as Smith fired a lovely pass out wide to Daly who strolled over comfortably in the corner.
Ben Youngs came off the bench to join Jason Leonard as England's most capped men's player, replacing Harry Randall who was extremely impressive at scrum-half.
It was Italy who looked the more threatening as the second-half went on, getting deep into the England 22 on a number of occasions but they weren’t able to convert it into points.
England couldn’t to add to the scoreboard for nearly 30 minutes, before Malins offloaded it to Sinckler and he touched down under the posts.
A comfortable bonus-point win, but England need to step up a level when they welcome Wales to Twickenham in two weeks.
