Six Nations 2022: Marcus Smith 'could be outstanding' - Eddie Jones
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Marcus Smith, with only seven caps, has been England's outstanding player of the Six Nations
England head coach Eddie Jones says "there is no ceiling to how good" fly-half Marcus Smith can be after his man-of-the-match performance against Italy.
The 22-year-old orchestrated his own eye-catching try and set up two others in the 33-0 bonus-point win in Rome.
Unlike against Scotland in round one, Smith played the full 80 minutes.
"If he keeps wanting to get better and having a learning mindset, then he could be an outstanding player at Test level by the World Cup," Jones said.
"That's obviously pretty important, to have a good 10."
Six Nations 2022: How 'classy operator' Smith shone for England against Italy
Smith is on track to be England's starting 10 at the 2023 tournament in France and followed in the footsteps of one of the nation's greatest players with his performance in Italy.
He beat six defenders during the match - the most by an England fly-half since Jonny Wilkinson in 2002.
"The forwards definitely went forward and that created opportunities for Marcus," Jones continued.
"We were full of intent with how we wanted to play. That also helped him."
'We left a bit out there'
Having lost their opening game against Scotland, England bounced back by scoring five unanswered tries in Rome.
Jones was "pleased" with the defence and says their attack is improving but that his side could have scored more points.
Six Nations 2022: England score five tries in bonus-point win against Italy
"We had two tries disallowed and probably missed another one or two," Jones told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"We left a bit out there but I'm really pleased with the defensive effort and not giving them any points.
"Each game we want to get a little bit better, and we felt our attack was better than against Scotland but we have some room to go."
England, who move up to second in the table, host Wales at Twickenham when the tournament resumes on Saturday, 26 February.
Jones says home advantage will help England in what he says will be a "much tougher game" against Wayne Pivac's side.
"Wales are an attritional team as we saw yesterday when they hung in the game against Scotland and started to win the battle around the ruck," he continued.
"Dan Biggar was able to give them field position and I thought it was an outstanding win.
"It will be a much tougher game but we will be back at Twickenham and backed by 82,000 fans who want to see England do well."
'We have put ourselves back in the championship'
England fly-half Smith said the visitors "had to put on a show" for their travelling fans in Rome.
"We were very disappointed after Murrayfield," he told ITV.
"Eddie spoke about the next job and we have put ourselves back in the championship with that win.
"I've never played in this stadium before, there was a special atmosphere with loads of England fans having come out. We had to put a show on for them, we were a bit scrappy and credit to Italy but to score 33 points is always nice."
Smith lined up alongside scrum-half Harry Randall, with whom he says he has a "special" partnership after playing together in England age-group teams.
He added: "To play alongside Harry [Randall] is special, we have a good connection off the field and I hope we have on it as well.
"We have loads to work on, we are still learning on our journey, but we will enjoy tonight and get back on the horse tomorrow."
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