Jamie George felt England delivered an explosive start to the Guinness Six Nations after sweeping aside Wales 48-7 in a victory that sets-up their pivotal trip to Murrayfield.
Henry Arundell, making his first start since the 2023 World Cup, ran in a first-half hat-trick at Allianz Stadium while Ben Earl, Tom Roebuck and Tommy Freeman also crossed, with a penalty try completing the rout.
Next up are a Scotland side reeling from their 18-15 defeat by Italy as England search for their first win in Edinburgh since 2020.
“Regardless of who we were playing next, it’s a brilliant platform for us to kick on from,” said George, who led the team after regular captain Maro Itoje was picked on the bench.
“We wanted to start with a bang and we did that, especially the way we started the game. The intensity that we played with – that looks like the sort of team that we want to be.
“It’s going to be about seeing how far we can push it because we know what a big test it will be up at Murrayfield next week.
“There’s just this appetite and desire for this team to be as good as we possibly can be and to get better. We felt that in how competitive training has been.
“For us then to go out and execute the way that we did is so pleasing because we looked like a team that were cohesive.
“Given that it’s the first game of the tournament, that’s pretty impressive.”
England’s third biggest win against Wales was sealed despite a lack of fluency in the second half having entered the interval 29-0 ahead on the back of a clinical 40 minutes brilliantly orchestrated by George Ford.
Head coach Steve Borthwick said: “Defensively we were excellent. We know Wales have got so many dangerous players and pace out wide and we shut them down really well.
“Our kicking game was good and the set-piece did a good job, but there’s plenty of room for improvement.
“What is really pleasing is we created loads of opportunities and we can get better at converting those.
“Especially in that second half, we didn’t convert the opportunities in the manner I would like us to. There is plenty for us to go and work on.”
Wales captain Dewi Lake gave an honest assessment of his team’s 12 consecutive loss in the Six Nations with the first half especially harrowing for Welsh fans.
“We let ourselves down and let people down. We spoke all week about what we were going to produce and we didn’t do it,” Lake said.
“There’s no other way to say it. We’re massively disappointed with what we put on the field.”
Wales host France next Sunday and Lake added: “We know we’re going to be better next weekend.
“We’ve spoken a lot about wanting to excite a nation. We didn’t do it against England. We’ve got another four games in this tournament and we’ll make sure we do it next week.”
