England ended a run of five successive defeats and concluded their Autumn Nations Series campaign with a dominant 59-14 triumph over Japan.
It provided a brief respite for their under pressure head coach Steve Borthwick, who saw his side control the game from start to finish.
The Englishmen were too strong for a poor an underpowered Japan side as they moved into a 35-7 advantage at the interval thanks to tries from Ben Earl, Sam Underhill, Jamie George (twice) and Ollie Sleightholme.
Naoto Saito touched down for the Brave Blossoms and Kazuki Himeno went over in the second period, but Eddie Jones’ men were comprehensively outplayed at Twickenham.
England scored four more tries after the break as George Furbank, Luke Cowan-Dickie (twice) and Tom Roebuck went over to complete an easy and much-needed win.
England were looking for a positive end to their Autumn Nations Series and, on the scoreboard at least, they got it. They overpowered Japan and had the game won by half-time.
Most of the hard work was done by those up front, although there was the odd positive sign from the backline.
That included Ollie Lawrence, who created the first try, as the centre broke through the middle and found Earl to go over unopposed.
England’s forwards then went to work and, following a series of close-range surges, Underhill crossed the whitewash and was awarded a try, despite appearing to lose control of the ball. It was awarded, however, and the Red Rose moved 14-0 ahead.
Japan were already on the back foot and they struggled to stem the tide, particularly at the set-piece. The Red Rose scrum was consistently doing damage and setting up the position for the hosts to set up the maul, where George was the beneficiary.
Twice the captain went over after their pack charged towards the line, handing them a dominant 28-0 advantage after just half-an-hour.
Jones’ men had failed to truly fire a shot but, in the 34th minute, they finally got outside of that fallible English rush defence and scored a magnificent try.
Once again, the home side got it wrong, leaving their wide channel exposed, but that shouldn’t detract from the work of Dylan Riley, whose wonderful run was finished by Saito.
That was the visitors’ only positive in the first half, though, as England extended their buffer at the interval through Sleightholme after a wonderful pass from tighthead Will Stuart.
The second period continued in much the same fashion as the first, albeit the Red Rose were not quite as clinical as the first, while their defence continued to struggle when Japan were able to shift the ball wide.
Borthwick’s outfit registered two tries in the third quarter, with the first coming via a particularly special off-load from Tommy Freeman, as the wing’s superb piece of skill was collected and score by Furbank.
Cowan-Dickie then touched down before Japan manufactured another wonderful try, which was finished off by Himeno.
Their joy did not last long, though, as the hosts’ replacement hooker made it brace by scoring for a second time from close range.
It was all a bit too easy for England, who rounded off the victory when Fin Smith’s crossfield kick was well finished by Roebuck.
The teams
England: 15 George Furbank, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Henry Slade, 11 Ollie Sleightholme, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Tom Curry, 5 George Martin, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Jamie George (c), 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19 Nick Isiekwe, 20 Chandler Cunningham-South, 21 Harry Randall, 22 Fin Smith, 23 Tom Roebuck
Japan: 15 Takuro Matsunaga, 14 Tomoki Osada, 13 Dylan Riley, 12 Siosaia Fifita, 11 Jone Naikabula, 10 Nicholas McCurran, 9 Naoto Saito, 8 Faulua Makisi, 7 Kazuki Himeno, 6 Kanji Shimokawa, 5 Epineri Uluiviti, 4 Sanaila Waqa, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi, 2 Mamoru Harada, 1 Takato Okabe
Replacements: 16 Seunghyuk Lee, 17 Yukio Morikawa, 18 Keijiro Tamefusa, 19 Daichi Akiyama, 20 Tevita Tatafu, 21 Ben Gunter, 22 Shinobu Fujiwara, 23 Yusuke Kajimura
Referee: Craig Evans (Wales)
Assistant Referees: Andrea Piardi (Italy), Morné Ferreira (South Africa)
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)
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