The frustration for Borthwick is that his side had shown glimpses of progress for the first hour – the aerial contest was largely productive, with Cadan Murley winning a number of high balls.
Ben Earl had another impactful game, Guy Pepper carried strongly and Smith had some nice touches.
The build-up to the try by Freeman in the first half reflected their desire to get their forwards to pass and offload, with a flick by Joe Heyes allowing Earl to carry strongly. Smith’s cross-kick also stretched the Italy defence allowing Tom Roebuck to score in the right-hand corner to give England a two-point lead at the break.
Yet there were too many errors in between and England have looked defensively vulnerable out wide, where Ioane was a handful and Menoncello cut through too easily the tackles of Heyes and Underhill for his first-half score.
The two penalties by Smith gave England a false hope that their graft and doggedness would be enough. But instead of using their heads to close the game out, England totally lost them, and that it was players who have been in such exacting situations on so many occasions that let the side down is a question that Borthwick has to get to the bottom of, and fast.
Match details
Scoring sequence: 3-0 P Garbisi pen, 3-5 Freeman try, 8-5 Menoncello try, 10-5 P Garbisi con, 10-10 Roebuck try, 10-12 F Smith con, 10-15 F Smith pen, 10-18 F Smith pen, 13-18 P Garbisi pen, 16-18 P Garbisi pen, 21-18 Marin try, 23-18 P Garbisi con.
Italy: L Pani (T Allan 72); L Lynagh, J Brex (L Marin 51), T Menoncello, M Ioane; P Garbisi, A Garbisi (A Fusco 50); D Fischetti (M Spagnolo 58), G Nicotera (T Di Bartolomeo 58), S Ferrari (M Hasa 51), N Cannone, A Zambonin (F Ruzza 51), M Lamaro, M Zuliani (R Favretto 72), L Cannone.
Sin-bin Nicotera 78.
England: E Daly (M Smith 74); T Roebuck, T Freeman, S Atkinson, C Murley; F Smith, B Spencer (J van Poortvliet 58); E Genge (B Rodd 58), J George L Cowan-Dickie 76), J Heyes (T Davison 68), M Itoje, A Coles, G Pepper (C Cunningham-South, 76), S Underhill (O Chessum 67), B Earl (H Pollock 74).
Sin-bin: Underhill 57, Itoje 65.
Referee: Luc Ramos (France).