'Freak' Sam Simmonds seizes his chance to impress as England delight Eddie Jones in Rome

Anthony Watson may have won the official man-of-the-match award, but it was Simmonds who really stood out as he starred in what was only his second Test start for England

(Getty)

Jack Nowell labelled Sam Simmonds “a freak” after his brilliant Six Nations debut on Sunday, with the No 8 taking full advantage of England’s back-row injury problems to bag his first two tries in international rugby in the 46-15 defeat of Italy.

Anthony Watson, himself scoring twice, may have won the official man-of-the-match award, but it was Simmonds who really stood out as he starred in what was only his second Test start for England.

Having risen to prominence in the Premiership semi-finals last May, before making his international debut last November, Simmons has been trusted by Eddie Jones to start the Six Nations as his No 8 due to the injuries sustained by Billy Vunipola and Nathan Hughes, and the Exeter Chief certainly rewarded the head coach for his faith with two second-half tries and a performance of worthy of the international stage.

“He is a bit of a freak, Simmo, isn’t he?” his Exeter colleague Nowell said after the game in Rome. “He is up there with the quickest I have played with and a lot of the boys here will say how quick he is. He has got a backside so that’s where the power comes from!

Nowell added: “For Simmo to play as well as he did – he has been doing that for us all season at Exeter – for him to put an England shirt on and show what he is about on a big stage is awesome. It was a special moment out there when Simmo scored his second try and us four Chiefs boys were celebrating together.

“It is definitely a step up but it is the belief and confidence that the coaches put in you here. If you are doing it for your club then there’s no reason why you can’t do it here. It is harder but he is a quality player.

Simmonds scored twice in the second half as England took the game away from Italy in what had been a surprisingly close affair at the break. The reigning champions, who are looking to claim a third outright championship victory for the first time in Six Nations history, outscored the hosts three tries to one, but Owen Farrell’s two missed conversions and a Tommaso Allan penalty left the score at 17-10 at the break.

England kicked on at the break though, and tries from George Ford and Nowell, on top of Watson’s early double and Farrell’s score before half-time, meant that Jones’ side move on to next Saturday’s home clash with Wales with momentum and confidence behind them.

“That was massively positive, I was really pleased with the effort today,” Jones said. “Italy were always going to be difficult to play. There was a big crowd in Rome, the sun was shining and everyone was enjoying themselves and were excited.”

Jones gave extra credit to the scrum, which has come under scrutiny of late, partly due to English struggles in the European Champions Cup, and the Australian believed that it was the set-piece basis that laid the platform for the back line to steal the win.


 Eddie Jones was delighted with his side's efforts in Rome 
 (Getty)

“We had to hang in there and do the simple things well,” Jones added. “Our scrum and line-out was absolutely first class. I don't think we've scrummed as well as that in the time I've been in charge of England. We were completely dominant and that's English rugby. When the game broke up at the end we were able to score tries. There was some lovely ball movement.

“Defensively we made a couple of errors and they were able to capitalise on them but they're something we can work on and fix. It wasn't the perfect game, but very, very positive.”

England have a day less to turn around and prepare for their second match of the tournament back at Twickenham against old rivals Wales, but Jones would not be drawn on that clash as he focused on allowing the players a night of celebration.

“Tonight we’re going to enjoy it, I want the boys to enjoy the win. I’m proud of them, relax a little bit and then we’ll get onto Wales tomorrow, recover properly then get onto Wales.”