Ollie Lawrence put aside the frustrations and upheaval he has had to endure to make a powerful and very direct impact for England against Italy, in keeping with the clear instructions he received.

Asked to explain his Man of the Match role in Sunday's win over the Azzurri at Twickenham, the Bath centre said: ‘I think Steve (Borthwick) put it as, "You've got to kick the front door down". You can understand List XXX Mature what he means by that.'

Just a few minutes into the Six Nations fixture, Lawrence was already giving that door a good kicking and it was well and truly down by the time he was being announced as the star performer in a 31-14 home win.