Still a square peg in a round hole at full-back, but Marcus Smith provides spark Borthwick needs

The second half was barely a minute old. If you couldn't see the scoreboard you could tell by those swathes of empty seats. It was a hot day after all and refreshments were still being swilled. Italy were not bothered, however. They were on the attack, parked in England's 22 and when the fly-half Paolo Garbisi found the outside, a try, and with it the lead, looked a certainty.

- Gerard Meagher

The ball was flung wide to Italy's left-wing Matt Gallagher, who stepped inside off his left foot. The step was read by Marcus Smith, who threw every one of his 82kg behind the tackle. Gallagher was stopped, Italy's momentum was lost and, soon after, England escaped with a penalty awarded at the breakdown.

England's lead was four at this stage and six minutes later it was 18. Another six and it was 25 with three quickfire tries. Smith scored the first, Tom Curry the second and Ollie Sleightholme the third.

England did not necessarily win this match because of Smith but the moment he was introduced ahead of schedule you suspected his say would be significant.

Without his tackle, without his try, scored after a trademark hitch-kick past Ange Capuozzo, England would not have been in such ascendancy with half an hour remaining. Curry and Jamie George would not have been in a position to fling one-handed offloads, England finally feeling liberated enough to showcase the kind of attacking intent they had promised but failed to deliver hitherto in their best performance with the ball in the championship.