George Ford, who scored 24 points, and Alex Gray also scored tries with a penalty try finishing things off at the death.

England now have a week off before a top-of-the-table clash on the 27th February with France, who also won convincingly in Ireland on Friday night.

“I can’t ask for much more than the boys gave me against Italy,” said Hunter.

“I’d love to single out one or two of the guys but to do that you need to talk about all of them, because they all played very well.

“The key throughout the week was to give a good performance and to be accurate and the lads delivered on both.

“To score that many tries and to keep your defence intact you need the whole team to perform and they did.

“We knew that Italy would be physical – as they have been in the past – but we maintained focus on what we wanted to achieve.

“We’ve got momentum now and that shouldn’t be overlooked, part of me wishes that we had the lads together next week, but another part of me is pleased that the lads can get away, get fresh and put some hard work in at their clubs.
“We’ve got to where we are due to the hard work we’ve put in but we’re going to have to build on that when we play France.”