Rejuvenated England run in eight tries to thrash Japan and open tour in style

Marcus Smith dives in to score England’s second try after an eye-catching training-ground move. Photograph: Koki Nagahama/RFU/The RFU Collection/Getty Images

Better opposition than Japan awaits this developing England team but they will arrive in New Zealand having relished their Tokyo stopover. There was plenty to admire in their eight-try flattening of Eddie Jones’s inexperienced Japan side and they are making life increasingly difficult for opponents with and without the ball.

Jones will certainly have noticed the difference between the careworn team he left behind in late 2022 and the rejuvenated, eager bunch who put his Brave Blossoms to the sword for the first hour here. There were a number of impressive individual performers on a warm, sultry afternoon, not least the scrum-half Alex Mitchell and the Harlequins pair of Chandler Cunningham-South and Marcus Smith.

The former scored his first try for England while the latter contributed one splendidly sharp try and had a hand or a foot in two others before taking a second-half knock and disappearing to the sin-bin never to return. Japan did manage a couple of tries in the last quarter but the visitors, until the rhythm was disrupted by waves of substitutions and the dismissal of lock Charlie Ewels for a dangerous clear-out in the 73rd minute, were a cut above despite their unfamiliar surroundings.

Around the middle of the day it was blazingly hot in central Tokyo but some relieving light cloud eventually arrived to shield the players from the worst of the glare. It was still humid, though, with temperatures nudging towards 30 degrees Celsius, precisely the sort of challenging weather that Jones had hoped England would encounter.

To add to the mix Japan started like bats out of hell. Their ‘go faster’ style of rugby, known as ‘Chosoku’, can be hard to sustain but when it clicks it is absolutely fabulous to watch. Fizzing short passes and deft offloads left England’s defenders briefly clutching at shadows and only a couple of costly fumbles and turnovers prevented the home side from adding to Lee Seung-sin’s early penalty.

England needed to get a grip and, once they did so, their fortunes instantly improved. Mitchell and Feyi-Waboso both tested out the Japanese defence and, with pressure bulding, Cunningham-South drove over from close range to score his first Test try. Assuming the big back-rower stays fit, there will be plenty more.

The visitors’ second try was rather more eye-catching, a pre-planned training-ground move performed to perfection. George’s long throw right over the top of a lineout was gathered on the full by a charging Ollie Lawrence before Mitchell fed Smith just under 40 metres out. The fly-half immediately spotted the space available and a slashing right-foot step made the most of it.

It was no surprise when Smith was also involved in England’s third try just before the half hour, throwing a long pass to Feyi-Waboso to score wide on the right with advantage being played. It was another illustration of England’s increasing ability to test opponents in multiple areas until the cracks can no longer be papered over.

They also have a wide range of skills at their disposal, as evidenced just before the interval when Smith looked up and despatched a perfectly-weighted cross kick towards the same right corner. Up leapt Slade to do the rest and give England a convincing 26-3 lead at the interval.

The second half was one-way traffic as Japan’s debutants were introduced to the harsher realities of Test rugby. Mitchell dummied his way over to cap another positive display and also provided the offload from which Ben Earl scored England’s sixth try. Aside from Ewels’ premature exit, which made the Bath lock the first player to be sent off twice for England, the management will have been encouraged on several fronts.

It also has been a week well spent off the field with England’s players having bathed in local onsens, attended the baseball, visited a high school and mingled with sumo wrestlers. The days of epic north v south tours may be coming to an end with the new Nations Championship due to start in 2026, but experiencing other cultures is invariably healthy. Next stop the rugby pitches of New Zealand, where a different kind of education traditionally awaits.