Rugby Union - Autumn Internationals - England v Japan - Allianz Stadium Twickenham, London, Britain - November 24, 2024 England's Harry Randall in action with Japan's Tevita Tatafu Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge
LONDON (Reuters) -England ended their run of five straight defeats with a comprehensive 59-14 demolition of a young Japan team at Twickenham on Sunday, running in nine tries, including two each for hookers Jamie George and Luke Cowan-Dickie.
Despite difficult rainy and windy conditions, England sought to keep the ball in hand when they could and scored a nice variety of tries and Marcus Smith expertly converted seven of them.
Critics will point to the low quality of the opposition and question England’s defence for the two tries conceded, but Steve Borthwick’s team did pretty much all they could to lift the gloom surrounding them after three successive Twickenham defeats against the southern hemisphere big three and were given a rousing send-off by a near-capacity 81,000 crowd.
"The players wanted to deliver and they did so in a positive manner. Some of the tries were exceptional and you can see the identity growing," Borthwick said.
Smith added: "We wanted to express ourselves, which is what we’ve tried to do all Autumn and hopefully we can take that into the Six Nations.
"It takes time. It’s good we’re in positions to win games. There’s been minor blips, but we are going to work on more commitment and collective buy in."
It was an opportunity to finish the Autumn Series on a high against Eddie Jones's Japan team who were thumped 52-12 by France and 64-19 by New Zealand in recent weeks, having lost 52-17 to England in Tokyo in June.
Borthwick said he wanted England to play fast and they did from the start as a nice combination between Smith and Ollie Lawrence sent Ben Earl under the posts to get them on the board after 10 minutes and Sam Underhill forced himself over for a second.
A lineout drive then put George over and though Tommy Freeman’s spectacular score was ruled out for the tiniest of knock-ons, a second George maul try had England 28-0 ahead after 32 minutes.
Japan had not ventured into the England half but they suddenly showed a glimpse of their high-speed running from deep when Dylan Riley broke from his own 22 through a disorganised England defence to feed Naoto Saito for an excellent try.
England hit back when Ollie Sleightholme neatly kicked and gathered for his fourth try in three games and with Smith slotting another superb touchline conversion, they led 35-7 at halftime.
A brilliant round the back pass by Freeman gave George Furbank a try and then a determined charge by Cowan-Dickie brought another.
Among a flood of replacements Asher Opoku-Fordjour, the highly-rated 20-year-old prop, came on to win his first cap and Fin Smith also joined at flyhalf, with Marcus Smith switching to fullback.
England’s defence was sliced open too easily again as Kazuki Himeno scored Japan’s second try but replacement wing Tom Roebuck then wrongfooted two defenders with great steps for a memorable first international try and Smith landed his seventh conversion to complete an emphatic victory.
Looking back over the November series, Borthwick said: "I feel very positive about going forward, we made some changes and I feel we have done well in a short space of time.
"We are disappointed with some of the results but we are moving in the right direction. The average age (of the team) is 25, we have come close on a number of occasions, and I sense the players are wanting to convert that."
His predecessor Jones said the experience of playing at Twickenham would be "gold dust" for his young Japan squad.
"It’s just time and lessons like this and at the Stade de France that are priceless. It's a really young team and we have to be patient. When you have 200 caps most players have played 10 tests or less, so when something goes wrong on the field they can’t adapt to it.
"We have to be patient, because we want to play faster it puts more pressure on your skill. But we just have to stick to it – there’s no magic solution here."
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Toby Davis)
