Japan 17 England 52
Forget the scoreline, and the fact that Charlie Ewels created some unfortunate history by becoming the first England player to be sent off twice when his yellow card for a dangerous clear-out tackle on Michael Leitch, the Japan captain, was upgraded to red, which will surely bring his tour to a premature end.
The main takeaway from this contest was England’s attempt to harness the momentum generated by the second half of their Six Nations campaign and a glimpse into the future of a back line run by Marcus Smith, stepping out of the shadows of Owen Farrell and George Ford.
On both fronts, the return was encouraging for Steve Borthwick, while also giving the England head coach a valuable insight into what ground still needs to be made up before they depart for New Zealand on Monday for two Tests against the All Blacks.
It was far from perfect. England’s discipline at the breakdown was poor, and defensively they allowed a Japan side intent on playing with a lightning-fast game, with precision passing, too much space to attack, particularly in a lung-bursting first quarter.
But overall England demonstrated there is already a significant amount in the credit column with this eight-try victory in draining hot and humid conditions, even if the quality of this inexperienced Japan side must be taken into context.
The manner in which Smith grabbed hold of the game will have pleased Borthwick, after England had spent the majority of the first quarter chasing shadows in challenging conditions.
With Chandler Cunningham-South, Sam Underhill and George Martin all delivering powerhouse displays, there was even a chance for Ben Earl to be switched to centre late in the game to give him midfield experience with the hope of allowing England the positional flexibility to field a bench with six forwards and two backs.
But it was an impressive purple patch by Smith in the second quarter that changed the course of the contest decisively in England’s favour. After Cunningham-South had powered over for England’s first try, Smith burst into life, using his speed and change of direction to break open the Japanese defence for a stunning finish. He also had a hand in further tries by Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Henry Slade, finding him with a precision cross-field kick against the grain.
There is more to come from him in terms of game control, and even though he received a yellow card in the second half that brought his game to an end in the 54th minute – he was replaced by Fin Smith having appeared to suffer cramp moments before – it was a positive first step having been backed by Borthwick to shape England’s attack for a run of games.
His own try was celebrated by attack coach Richard Wigglesworth from the coaches’ box for the perfect execution of a move they had practised in training last week.
“We focused meticulously on our running lines in order to turn defenders and give each other one-on-ones and Mitch [Alex Mitchell] and Ben Earl did a really good job on the inside on the back of Ollie’s [Ollie Lawrence] brave line,” said Smith.
“And there was a massive hole in front of me, so I was very lucky to get that ball and I enjoyed scoring under the posts. With all moves we want to have short and long options. That one’s got a few different options that we potentially could run every single game and strike in different parts of the field.
“Like I said, the hole was for me and if someone had bitten on me, I would have hit Tommy Freeman or George Furbank on the outside.”
England know that they will not be able to score with such ease off first-phase possession against the All Blacks, but there was greater fluidity after the break, with further tries by Mitchell, Earl, Harry Randall and Underhill.
Yet with Borthwick set to back Smith for a number of games to see if he has the Test-match instincts to run a game while bringing his pace, scanning vision and attacking flair to a back line with greater pace than it has had for several years, there are plenty more multi-phase moves that have been kept back for the All Blacks.
To be fair to Eddie Jones, Japan’s high-tempo ‘ruck and run’ game was at times breath-taking, and their accuracy such that England’s defence was severely tested in the early stages and deserved more from a sole penalty by Seungsin Lee, the Kobe Steelers fly-half. At least their relentless efforts were rewarded with two late tries by Koga Nezuka and Samisoni Tua in what was a rather sloppy finish to the game as England introduced their bench, including a first return to the international stage for Tom Curry since his hip injury.
“The performance level will need to rise as we face New Zealand in two weeks time,” admitted Borthwick. “The discipline, you can’t give that number of penalties away, we know that. You can’t give New Zealand the space we gave Japan today.
“The team has had one session in England before we flew, we have had one proper session in Japan since we arrived getting over the jet lag, so to produce that off a couple of sessions together has been very impressive from the players’ point of view, but we will need to go up several levels and I expect us to when we face New Zealand.”
Match details
Scoring sequence: 3-0 Lee pen; 3-5, Cunningham-South try; 3-7 Smith con; 3-12, Smith try; 3-14, Smith con; 3-19, Feyi-Waboso try; 3-21, Smith con; 3-26, Slade try; 3-31, Mitchell try; 3-33, Smith con; 3-38, Earl try; 3-43, Randall try; 3-45, Slade con; 8-45, Nezuka try; 10-45, Matusuda con; 15-45, Yamasawa try; 17-45, Matsuda con; 17-50, Underhill; 17-52, Slade con
Japan: Y Yazaki (T Yamasawa, 55); J Naikabula, S Tua, Tomoki Osada, K Nezuka; S Lee (R Matsuda, 60), N Saito (S Fujiwara 55); T Mohara (S Mirua, 60), M Harada (A Sakate, 49), S Takeuchi (K Tamefusa, 47), S Waqa (A Saumaki, 55), W Dearns, M Leitch, T Costley (K Yamamoto, 60), F Makisi
England: G Furbank; I Feyi-Waboso (T Roebuck, 60), H Slade, O Lawrence, T Freeman (C Ewels, 66); M Smith (F Smith, 66), A Mitchell (H Randall, 51); B Rodd (J Marler, 44), J George (T Dan, 44), D Cole (W Stuart, 57), M Itoje, G Martin, C Cunningham-South (S Underhill, 57), S Underhill (T Curry, 51), B Earl
Yellow card: M Smith (54)
Red card: C Ewels (73)