Marcus Smith stars as England outclass Italy in Six Nations

England showed the ruthless streak demanded by Eddie Jones as they atoned for their shattering collapse against Scotland by outclassing Italy 33-0 at the Stadio Olimpico.

Jones had urged his team to “light up Rome” and in response they delivered a five-try rout orchestrated by man of the match Marcus Smith to inflict a 34th successive Championship defeat on the Azzurri.

“There’s no ceiling to how good he can be,” Jones said of Smith.

“If he keeps on wanting to get better and keeps having a learning mindset, then he could be an outstanding player at Test level by the World Cup. That’s obviously pretty important, to have a good 10.

“The forwards definitely went forward and that created opportunities for Marcus. We were very intentful with how we wanted to play. That also helped him.”

England had stormed 21-0 ahead by half-time and Smith was at the heart of many of their best moments, but he truly shone when firing a superb missed pass to provide Elliot Daly with a simple try in the 45th minute.

And unlike at Murrayfield a week earlier when he was replaced in the 63rd minute to widespread puzzlement, there was no sign of George Ford arriving off the bench until late on and this time Joe Marchant made way.

Ben Youngs eventually joined him at half-back to equal Jason Leonard’s record as England’s most capped player on 114 appearances, with the round-three visit of Wales to Twickenham the likely setting for him to surpass the milestone.

But, having replaced the impressive Harry Randall, Youngs entered a team that were in the midst of losing their way as Italy discovered renewed purpose to spend long spells camped in opposition territory, albeit with little end product.

An England side showing six changes in personnel following