England player ratings: ‘Sensational’ finisher stands up while Steve Borthwick finally gets bench right
England's Ollie Sleightholme scores against Japan.
Following their commanding 59-14 over Japan’s Brave Blossoms, here are our player ratings for England’s Red Rose.
Beautiful backline
15 George Furbank: The full-back was handed a try to round out a solid effort where he contributed where he could to the attack and made few errors on defence. He adds a load of dynamism to the English backline. 6
14 Tommy Freeman: His outing was headlined by a sumptuous out-the-back offload to his Northampton teammate, Furbank. Other than that had a sound outing in maroon. 6
13 Ollie Lawrence: Lawrence was really good going forward, beating seven defenders and notching up a try assist. It may have been weaker opposition but it was a shift he needed after a tough autumn. 8
12 Henry Slade: Not a 12 in our eyes and while he had some strong linking play during this one he did put the outside backs under pressure on defence with some of his reads. The jury is still out as to whether he is the right guy for this midfield. 4
11 Ollie Sleightholme: One of the things that is so hard to coach is finishing and boy does the winger have that ability in spade loads. His grubber and collect to score was sensational and a joy to watch. He certainly has made it hard to leave him out going forward. 8
10 Marcus Smith: The fly-half is well settled as England’s incumbent and he marshalled the attack very nicely and kicked accurately from the tee. Smith showed his versatility with an exciting cameo at full-back during the last bit of the game. 7
9 Jack van Poortvliet: Didn’t kick as well as he should have and was slightly inaccurate in various roles in this one. It was not a shocker by any means but the difference was noticeable when Harry Randall was on. 5
Pack
8 Ben Earl: The number eight needed a try-scoring performance to bounce back from his mixed-bag Autumn Nations Series. He topped the carry charts as one can expect and thoroughly deserved his try. 7
7 Sam Underhill: He was looking solid enough and scored an early try before he was forced off with an injury early. N/A
6 Tom Curry: Busy busy as always. Curry made 14 tackles which was his main contribution to this one as he was less involved on attack. 6
5 George Martin: Typical gets his work in on defence but was not required to do much more on that front while the main carrier dominated the attack. He ticked the boxes and got his job done otherwise. 5
4 Maro Itoje: He was solid in the line-out with eight takes and prevalent always in the maul defence. Wasn’t really required to produce that big Itoje performance we have become used to. 6
3 Will Stuart: Was a beautiful sight seeing him break the line and shovel a skip pass out wide! Otherwise, it was a brilliant scrummaging effort yet again. 7
2 Jamie George: Captain Fantastic. George got rewarded for handling a challenging season as the team leader with absolute aplomb. He bagged a brace from the back of the maul for his efforts. 8
1 Ellis Genge: The loosehead was solid in the scrum but still is not the Genge we know in the carry especially. 5
Replacements: For once we are not going to complain about Steve Borthwick’s bench as Luke Cowan-Dickie bagged a brace and Tom Roebuck scored his first Test try in an electric cameo. 9
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