Eddie Jones insisted there was more to come from England after they recovered from the opening weekend defeat to Scotland with a six-try victory over Italy.
The head coach said he would be looking for an improvement in execution in Cardiff in two weeks’ time and expressed his concern at the knee injury suffered by Jack Willis six minutes after the flanker had come on as a replacement.
Willis scored a try within a minute of leaving the bench but had to be taken from the field on a buggy following five minutes of treatment having been tackled by his opposite number, Sebastian Negri, who was lying on the floor at the time.
“Jack is on crutches and will have a scan on Sunday,” said Jones. “It did not look good and we are concerned.”
Asked about the legality of Negri’s challenge, he said: “I have no comment on that. It is up to the referee to make a decision.”
England conceded a try after two minutes but quickly recovered and secured the try bonus point nine minutes into the second half. Having been criticised for not moving the ball against Scotland, their back three scored four tries between them.
“I was really pleased with the attitude, energy and positivity of the side,” said Jones. “The execution needs work and we did not get the set-piece dominance we were looking for, but we will be ready for Wales.
“I gave the players too much information before the Scotland match, but there was clarity this time and their early try was good for us because it had a positive effect.”
The England captain, Owen Farrell supplied 11 points with the boot at the end of a week when his presence in the side had been questioned. “We had much more ball and so were on the front foot more than we had been against Scotland, but we know we can still do better,” he said. “It was a stop-start game with a lot of breaks in play and we wanted to get on with it.
“They had an advantage to move the ball and ended up scoring a try, which was probably a bit of over-eagerness but then, from that, our intent was brilliant.”
Jonny May scored the try of the afternoon having seen little of the ball seven days before. “It was a tough week and we just wanted to get back out there,” he said. “Days like that make you better as a player and as a team. It hurt and brought us closer together. We are still in the title race and will keep getting better.”
