3 weeks ago
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SKIPPER Jame George led the way with a brace as nine-try England romped home to end their five-match losing run.
Yet after an awful autumn, this was little more than a belated consolation, proving nothing of any real substance.
Reuters
GettyThe Twickenham crowd – officially still 81,000 despite what seemed a significant number of empty green seats – at least had the chance to rub Eddie Jones’ nose in the dirt, the howling gale and the teeming rain.
But Steve Borthwick will not need reminding those defeats to New Zealand, Australia and South Africa meant that the last few weeks have been a massive disappointment.
A few enjoyable but ultimately meaningless forward steps against outgunned opponents cannot erase those recent memories and looming clashes with Ireland and France will be far tougher tests.
Jones had privately predicted his side might be competitive for half an hour before running out of gas.
He over-estimated significantly.
After a scrappy start, which saw Japan scrum half Naoto Saito pull a penalty from half way wide and short of the target, England scored from their first serious attack.
A line out was gathered at the tail, allowing quick ball off the back.
Marcus Smith, who kicked seven out of none shots at goal has been England’s stand-out performer over the past month.
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And his pop-up pass sent Ollie Lawrence through the middle, with Ben Earl there on the centre’s shoulder to accept the gift and sprint over the line.
Soon the lead was doubled, Sam Underhill reaching out his right arm to touch down – although picking up an injury in the process which ended his afternoon prematurely.
Japan were already looking out-powered in all phases, England bigger and stronger.
Smith’s penalty to the corner saw George find his man and take the recycled ball, with Henry Slade, Lawrence and Ollie Sleightholme transforming the maul into a 12-man shove that allowed the captain to claim the third with barely a quarter of the game elapsed.
More followed before the interval – including a beauty by the visitors, although only after the TMO spotted Jack van Poortliet’s knock-on at the base of the ruck to rule out a flying one-handed finish by right wing Tommy Freeman.
But the retreating Japan pack collapsed the resulting scrum, Smith again found the corner and another back-augmented maul propelled George over the line once again.
Despite that, Japan responded with the best try of the game – although England should not be conceding from so deep.
Defending is not full-back George Furbank’s strength and he was found horribly wanting by the pace of Dylan Riley, who blitzed 40 yards before offloading to Toulouse No 9 Saito.
Not that it stemmed the tide for long.
Sleightholme soon claimed his fourth try in three autumn matches – matching the tally of his father Jon, in eight Test appearances fewer – with a delightful dummy before grabbing his own five-yard grubber kick.
After a slack opening to the second half had left England on the back foot for 13 minutes, they suddenly upped the intensity to score their sixth.
Furbank was the scorer, falling over the line.
But credit needed to go to Freeman for a superb instinctive behind the back pass after he won the race to Slade’s clever kick.
That brought a debut for much-discussed prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour, with another close-range line-out bringing the next try, George’s replacement, Luke Cowan-Dickie, doing what the skipper had done twice before as he rumbled over.
Back rower Kazuki Himeno took advantage of the growing spaces to claim a second, only for Cowan-Dickie to force his way over once again as England racked up a half-century.
Tim Roebuck then opened his international account as he waltzed through a gossamer-thin defence.
Nice numbers. But reality will return in Dublin in just 10 weeks.
The clock is already ticking. After making so many withdrawals of good will over the last three weekends, there is only so much credit in the bank.
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