Marcus Smith leads England to dominant victory over Japan in Tokyo showdown

Japan were outclassed in their first match since Jones was placed back in charge, with England amassing eight tries until Japan finally made their presence felt in the final 20 minutes.

Smith was at the heart of England's efforts, justifying his selection ahead of Fin Smith by orchestrating play intelligently until he was replaced having been shown a yellow card in the 55th minute.

The match also ended on a sour note for England when Charlie Ewels' yellow card for a dangerous clear out was upgraded to red.

Japan made the faster start and were rewarded with a penalty from fly-half Seungsin Lee, but England crossed the whitewash with their first meaningful attack, as a series of pick and goes underlined the greater carrying power of their forwards until the excellent Chandler Cunningham-South muscled over with help from Ben Earl.

A slick line-out move that saw Jamie George find Ollie Lawrence with a long throw ended when Smith ghosted through the midfield to score and the Harlequin then turned provider with a long pass for Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.

Smith was at the heart of England's growing control of the game, also catching the eye with a 50-22, and pleasingly for Borthwick every visit to the 22 saw their lead increase.

His vision sent a leaping Henry Slade over via a crossfield kick in another clinical finish and the second half was only two minutes old when Alex Mitchell exploited a gap around the ruck to glide over.

Japan launched a rare attack that was foiled by a Sam Underhill turnover and the home defence was then back in grave peril as Smith pinned them back with a kick that was followed by Feyi-Waboso and Dan Cole going close.

Earl succeeded soon after, helped by an offload from Mitchell who sucked in two tacklers, but England then had to regroup when Smith was sent to the sin-bin for an early tackle on Yoshitaka Yazaki.

Despite being a man down, scrum-half Harry Randall darted over with ease and he was joined off the bench by Tom Curry, who was making his first Test appearance since the World Cup because of hip surgery.

The replacements streamed off England's bench and Japan took advantage of the comings and goings to run in classy tries through Koga Nezuka and Samisoni Tua.

But there was one last try for Underhill as England finished with 14 men, Ewels taking Michael Leitch out low resulting in a yellow and then red card.

READ MORE: Pieter-Steph du Toit proud and honoured to lead Springboks against Wales