Tentative was the word springing to Martin Johnson's lips when the team manager was reviewing England's display. It also aptly describes Danny Cipriani's return to the Twickenham pitch on which, on his one previous international start, he tore Ireland asunder.

This is no surprise. Saturday was only his fifth start of a season in which mind and body have still to return to optimum action after four months of hard and often painful work recovering from the ankle fracture he suffered last May. Cipriani, who is only 21, has done wonderfully well to be in the frame for selection, never mind to be playing.

But the evidence that he was not quite ready was there before the weekend, most notably when London Wasps collapsed against Leinster in the Heineken Cup. The higher up the scale he goes, so the time in which Cipriani must work at fly half is reduced. Johnson and Brian Smith, the attack coach, believe, rightly, that in Cipriani they have an exceptional talent and are doing everything they can to restore him to the heights.

There were good reasons to prefer Toby Flood against the Pacific Islanders, but they wanted to see how swiftly Cipriani could discover an understanding at half back with Danny Care, his partner in representative age-grade rugby, and they wanted to give Riki Flutey a run at inside centre. The Flutey-Cipriani combination has been potent for Wasps and could become so for England.

During the game, the two men switched around at defensive scrums. Mike Ford, the defence coach, is no great supporter of removing players from the line of fire and Cipriani responded, but some of his work was laboured. He started with an ineffective kick and, by dwelling on a defensive clearance, allowed Seru Rabeni to charge him down and score the Islanders' only try.

“I forget about my mistakes and move on,” he said afterwards and, indeed, the incident did not prey on his mind. He was also working hard to demonstrate the flexibility that the England management require, running ball when the opportunity was on, seldom troubling a colleague and offering a varied kicking game.

This last element could cause him problems: if George Smith or Richie McCaw is breathing down his neck, even more kicks will go astray than did against Nili Latu. But Cipriani, like the England side as a whole, will derive confidence from the victory; individually, he will be happy to have nailed six of his seven attempts at goal and will feel he is back where he belongs.