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 this eight-try flattening of Eddie Jones’s inexperienced 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 an 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 Marcus Smith and Chandler Cunningham-South.
