Six Nations 2022: Marcus Smith stars as England seal 33-0 bonus-point win away to Italy

A player-of-the-match performance from Marcus Smith helped inspire England to a 33-0 bonus-point win over Italy in Sunday’s Six Nations clash in Rome.

Replaced - to widespread raised eyebrows - with England leading in last week's Calcutta Cup defeat away to Scotland, Smith put the visitors ahead with a try and conversion in the 10th minute, and two more from Jamie George ensured they were en route to a first win of this year's tournament at the break with a 21-0 lead.

Replacement Elliot Daly ensured Eddie Jones' men clinched the try-scoring bonus point four minutes into the second half, and fellow finisher Kyle Sinckler added a bit of gloss with their fifth of the afternoon, while it was a good day for the defence as England prevented Italy scoring a point for the first time.

Story of the game

It was a slow start from England, but when their attack clicked into gear they punished Italy and Smith was at the centre of it as part of a new half-back partnership with Harry Randall, named at scrum-half as one of six changes to the team from the defeat at Murrayfield.

Dictating much of a flowing move, the fly-half was then on hand to flick a pass out to Jack Nowell for the winger to burst down the left and run a smart support line to take the ball back inside from the Exeter Chiefs man for the opening score, which he duly converted.

That would, sadly, prove to be Nowell's only major contribution to the match though as his first start for the national team for 1,065 days came to an end when he was forced off soon after for a head injury assessment which he failed.

If England's first try had been all about effervescent attack, their second in the 20th minute was more about brute force and it was one made in north London. Saracens forwards Nick Isiekwe and Maro Itoje made the initial carries to get the away side to within striking distance, and then the ball was recycled through a couple of phases for clubmate George to burrow over.

Italy had shown plenty of promising signs of their own, including making some inroads in attack with their mobile pack seeing plenty of the ball, but a failure to execute proved costly. Likewise, their enthusiasm and determination in defence contrasted with them letting themselves down by conceding too many penalties in their territory.

Indeed, they were fortunate England did not punish them further in the 31st minute after opting to go for touch from a penalty in a kickable position when a try from Itoje was ruled out after the TMO spotted an obstruction by Isiekwe in the build-up.

Nevertheless, England did add to their tally on the stroke of half-time as some fine play from Max Malins, Freddie Steward and Joe Marchant led to the front row duo of Ellis Genge and George combining for the hooker to finish wide on the right for another score converted by Smith.

The introduction of prop Sinckler in place of Will Stuart at half-time helped the visitors gain the ascendancy in the scrum too, earning back-to-back penalties. Then, having opted for another set-piece close to Italy's line, England sealed the bonus point in the 44th minute with a simple move which saw Smith pick out replacement Daly to finish for an unconverted try.

England went off the boil in terms of their attack after this, but they did manage to grab a fifth try of the afternoon seven minutes from time when a hoisted kick from Smith was fumbled by Italy replacement Leonardo Marin, setting up an attack which saw Malins offload for Sinckler to finish under the posts for a converted try.

Italy still asked one or two questions of their opponents though, with winger Monty Ioane notably making a couple of probing runs, but the defence held firm as England maintained their record of having never lost to the Azzurri.

It was a proud day on a personal level for two Leicester Tigers players as well. Ben Youngs equalled Jason Leonard's record of 114 caps for England when he replaced Randall in the second half, while at the other end of the scale Ollie Chessum won his first cap when he came on for skipper Tom Curry.

What they said

England head coach Eddie Jones, speaking to ITV:

"It was a good performance. We started the game well and got a bit of a flow. We started the second half well and defended well at the end.

"They're a tough team and they keep coming. If we're a little bit tidier in some of our work in our running and support lines, and at the breakdown, it could have been a big score, but we're happy with that."

England player of the match Marcus Smith, speaking to ITV:

"We put a big emphasis on this week. We were very disappointed flying home from Murrayfield, we had to pick ourselves up as a group, the leaders spoke well in the week and Eddie spoke about focusing on the next job, and we put ourselves back in the competition with that win.

"There were loads of English fans came out to support us so we had to put on a show for them, and I thought we did that in parts. We were a bit scrappy in parts, but credit to Italy. They threw everything at us and made our ball pretty scrappy at times, but to score 33 points is always nice."

Match stats

What's next?

Both teams head into a weekend off to prepare for the third round of fixtures, which see England renew their rivalry with Wales in a clash at Twickenham on Saturday, February 26 (4.45pm kick-off).

The following day sees Italy head to Dublin to face an Ireland team aiming to bounce back from this weekend's defeat to France (3pm kick-off).