After a rain-soaked gritty win against Scotland on the opening weekend and a narrow defeat in Ireland Howard, who plays his club rugby for Worcester Warriors, admitted that the pressure was on the backs to produce.

And while it was the forwards who continue to hog the Under-20s headlines, No.8 Jack Clifford notched a hat-trick of tries against France, Howard is convinced there is more to come from the three-quarters.

“It was becoming a bit of a running joke in the squad that the backs had not scored a try yet,” he said.

“So it was nice in the huddle at the end for someone to have scored but we know that we have got it in us.

“It has been a bit frustrating in the first two matches, in Plymouth the conditions didn’t help us and against Ireland we just never got going.

“And even in the first-half against France it did not look like we were going to be doing too much but we have talent and pace in the back line and it was nice to show that at the end.

“This week is about enjoying this performance; we took the Ireland loss pretty hard so it’s only right that we enjoyed the win [against France].

“We have done ourselves a big favour with the margin of victory and hopefully another big points win against Italy will set it up for a pretty thrilling match in Wales.”