That half-time swap of props has done wonders for the England scrum. Kyle Sinckler launches into Danilo Fischetti and the Italian loosehead is penalised.

Harry Randall wishes to go quickly, as is his wont, but he is too far from the mark. England’s forwards fancy another go at the scrum instead.

That half-time swap of props has done wonders for the England scrum. Kyle Sinckler launches into Danilo Fischetti and the Italian loosehead is penalised.

Harry Randall wishes to go quickly, as is his wont, but he is too far from the mark. England’s forwards fancy another go at the scrum instead.

Razor sharp from Harry Randall! He races around the corner, Elliot Daly holding the defenders on the inside, Alex Dombrandt doing likewise outside the scrum-half, who shows and goes and races through a gaping hole.

England pour around the corner, but the pass to Kyle Sinckler is marginally forward as the fresh prop replacement looks to make his first significant dent. A couple more phases and a score looked a certainty.

Italy have also made a halftime change on the tighthead – Tiziano Pasquali, formerly of Leicester, will do battle with a current Tiger in Ellis Genge.

Genge wins their first duel. Pasquali hits the deck under pressure. England penalty, and back down towards the Italian 22 go the visitors.

Marcus Smith’s restart travels only nine-and-a-half metres so the first proper action of the half will be an Italian scrum on halfway…

Kieran Crowley pens some final notes in his pad of paper high in the Italian coaches’ box, releasing what appears to be a disgruntled sigh. It looks like Will Stuart may be getting the half-time hook – he is standing with the substitutes as his England teammates emerge from the tunnel.

Yep, Kyle Sinckler is on.

Jonny Wilkinson was purring about Marcus Smith before kick-off and the former England fly-half rather liked what he saw from the current occupier of the ten shirt in that first 40 minutes:

It’s not included in that clip, but that George score came from another Stephen Varney blind pass that went awry, the second time a moment of loose handling from the scrum-half has cost Italy in two weeks. There is clearly the nucleus of a good side in this Italian team, and again they have tackled strongly, but they cannot afford to have errors like that if they are to stay competitive in games.

They’ve produced some really inventive, well-executed flourishes in attack, particularly through Paolo Garbisi. But there always seems to be a sense of panic if Italy make rapid progress – can they improve in the second half and take a chance?

That felt a lot like the first half of France-Italy last weekend, with England obviously a superior side and playing with plenty of purpose, but unable to fully bust open a battling Italian defence. Marcus Smith has ran the show, with some lovely touches all around the park, but England have sometimes been guilty of hurrying their movements when they’ve made an initial break or half-break. You’d think they will be well placed to accelerate away if the game opens up, and that Jamie George score on the stroke of the interval will make them feel a whole lot better.