MY ACCOUNT
England are still a work in progress and can improve on the back of their morale-boosting 33-0 win over Italy, according to star performer Marcus Smith.
Following last week’s 20-17 loss to Scotland, England got off the mark with their first win of the 2022 Six Nations, achieved in emphatic style in Rome.
Smith scored the first of England’s five tries at Stadio Olimpico and assisted another in a standout display from the fly-half.
It is the third time Smith has both scored and assisted a try in a Test match for England, while overall he now has eight try involvements in seven Tests.
The 22-year-old beat six defenders against Italy, which is the most by an England fly-half in the Six Nations since Jonny Wilkinson’s eight against Ireland in 2002.
Despite impressing in a much better all-round performance from coach Eddie Jones’ team, Smith believes there is more to come ahead of hosting Wales in two weeks’ time.
“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,” he told ITV Sport.
“We put a big emphasis on today – we were very disappointed after Murrayfield. Eddie [Jones] spoke about the next job and we have put ourselves back in it with that win.
“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.”
Jamie George crossed twice after Smith had opened the scoring, to give England a 21-0 lead at half-time – their joint-biggest ever in an away game in the Six Nations.
Elliot Daly and Kyle Sinckler extended England’s lead in the second half as they achieved just a second nilling of the opposition in the competition, the other coming against Scotland in 2014.
Reflecting on a job well done by his side, head coach Jones said: “It was a good performance from us. We started the game well, got a bit of a flow, started the second half well, and defended well at the end.
“Italy are a tough team and they keep coming. If we were a bit tidier with some of our work, some running lines, it could have been a big score.
“[Italy] have played New Zealand and France and in the first halves been in the game – and they were not in the game today.
“Marcus did well, Harry Randall did some good things at the start and [Alex[ Dombrandt had a really solid game.”
England have now won all 23 of their Six Nations matches against Italy and are the only side the Azzurri have never beaten in the championship.
Indeed, Italy have lost 34 matches in a row in the Six Nations in an unwanted record streak stretching back to 2015.
The Azzurri’s ill-discipline, as well as some individual errors, once again cost them against England in a match in which they conceded 12 penalties.
Home skipper Michele Lamaro was left to bemoan some sloppy play from his side in their latest loss.
“We’re obviously disappointed again,” he said. “Discipline was a big point for us last week [when losing to France]. We had to improve this week, and we didn’t really perform in that scenario.
“We have to get better in discipline, especially in the first half when we conceded too many penalties. Obviously if you concede them to 30-40 metres each time, it becomes difficult to defend.
“Last week our exits were not that good, this week our discipline wasn’t pretty good. Obviously in defence we have to put something on, and I think we can improve a lot.”
