It took Will Joseph less than a minute to show what England had been missing. Recalled after more than four years away from Test rugby, the Gloucester wing went over for the opening try and kept going, finishing with five in a 78-15 Nations Championship rout of Japan at Twickenham on Saturday.
The haul matches England’s men’s record for a single Test, a mark previously shared by four players, the best known of them Rory Underwood. It also caps an unusually bumpy road. Joseph made his debut as a teenager against Australia, then saw his first club London Irish collapse, struggled at Harlequins and lost hearing in his left ear after an autoimmune reaction.
Japan’s day unravelled almost at once. Before the conversion was even taken, the TMO flagged a shoulder to Ellis Genge’s head by lock Harry Hockings, and his yellow card was later turned into a 20-minute red. Eddie Jones, England’s coach for nearly seven years, watched his short-handed side fall apart. Joseph had a hat-trick inside 20 minutes, and the contest was effectively over long before the break.
England ran in 13 tries in total. The other eight tries were shared among eight different scorers, from Freddie Steward to replacement Greg Fisilau; Warner Dearns and Opeti Helu replied for the visitors. The margin could have been bigger: eight conversions went astray, six of them from George Ford, which does little for his claim on the No. 10 jersey.
Centre Max Ojomoh caught the eye with his distribution, and scrum-half Archie McParland won a first cap off the bench.
The real examination comes next Saturday. New Zealand, stung by last week’s defeat to Wales, are due at Twickenham, and Steve Borthwick is expected to bring several first-choice players back for that one.
