As a start it will do. Martin Johnson was never one given to wild swings of emotion, so there was not much danger of him dancing a gig on the turf he knows so well here, however wonderful the performance of his brand new England. As it was, he did not raise much more than a smirk. Or maybe he just had something stuck in his teeth.
Everyone else seemed satisfied, though, and on the face of it with good reason. Five new caps were blooded, one from the bench. One of them scored a try and two others set tries up, with one of the latter winning the man-of-the-match award. Delon Armitage, the most accidental of the new caps, having not even made the second-string squad initially, looked more than happy on the big stage. He had been called up as a replacement for the injured Mathew Tait and then thrust into the starting side when Nick Abendanon pulled out. And he was almost faultless, bar being bounced off by his London Irish team-mate Sailosi Tagicakibau in painful fashion right at the end. But his case as the game's outstanding player had long been rested by then.
But the Pacific Islands did not provide a stringent test. They are a side who usually look better on paper than they are in the crucible of a Test match, which is to be expected given the ad hoc basis on which they operate.
A crucible this most certainly was not, though. The ground was far from full, there was a Mexican Wave midway through the second half and no one anywhere looked as if their life depended on what they were doing. There can be no complaints about that, because it was the nature of the occasion, but this was not much more than a first hurdle cleared. The temperature is set to rise this month, as the opposition becomes progressively more difficult.
Johnson was most pleased with Armitage afterwards - he was practically warm in his praise for him - but other pluses came in the form of Danny Care, Ugo Monye, another debutant, Tom Rees and the line-out. Steve Borthwick, too, seemed to put himself about far more than he ever did when a mere foot soldier.
Danny Cipriani, however, was not at his best. His hesitant clearance kick straight from the restart to England's first try was charged down, affording the Islanders their only try of the day, and his distribution was a little lifeless and at times misdirected. But he finished off the try of the match, England's second, and ended up with a haul of 19 points. So it was hardly a bad day.
Once the unfamiliar excitement of seeing an England side run in five tries has died down, though, 'not bad' is really as far as we can go when delivering a verdict. The Islanders, gloriously unprepared as they are, rely almost exclusively on their dazzling talent to stay in these games, and they never quite got going. There were darts here and there from pretty much the first whistle, and no one would dare question the degree of their physicality, but they struggle to make all the parts work together, which means they are unable to apply the blow torch and make opponents weep.
England have always been better equipped to do that, but they never quite got the torch going until maybe the final quarter of an hour. Most of their tries stemmed from flashes of brilliance, in an almost Islands fashion you might say.
Their first came at the end of a purple patch of about five minutes in the first quarter. Care broke from a slick line-out, and Rees, Cipriani and Riki Flutey sent Armitage careering outside Tagicakibau. A perfect inside ball found Paul Sackey, who cantered over for the first try of the new era.
It was straight from that restart that Cipriani offered up the Islands' try to Seru Rabeni, who charged him down and finished off the formality. It was an error that seemed to throw not only the young fly-half but England in general.
But they suddenly stretched their lead three minutes before the break. Care took a tap penalty on his own 22 - this new England showed a few signs of thinking outside the box - and the ball was shipped to Monye, who went through the strangely weak tackle of Vilimoni Delasau. He was off over halfway and when finally caught found Cipriani on his shoulder for England's second. The subsequent restart, however, was another that was handled chaotically by England, and the Islanders earned a penalty a few moments later to leave the teams heading for the tunnel at 20-10.
A fair lead, no more or less than England deserved, but it was almost immediately improved upon in the second half. Another sweet line-out had Care racing through, and the galloping Nick Kennedy, who had won the line-out in the first place, was on hand for a try on his debut.
England drifted again after that. Seremaia Bai pulled back three points for the visitors, but it was deep into the final quarter before the game was finally put to bed. Armitage it was who initiated things with a fine counterattack, and Lee Mears crashed through the midfield for England's fourth.
Sackey grabbed a fifth in the corner with five minutes to go, and so it was that Johnson left the pitch with that ambiguous look on his face. A decent start, but the corners of his mouth may yet head up or down over the weekends to follow.
Twickenham 55,457
England Armitage; Sackey, Noon, Flutey, Monye; Cipriani (Flood 76), Care (Ellis 62); Sheridan, Mears (Hartley 76), Stevens (Vickery 59), Borthwick (capt), Kennedy (Palmer 56), Croft, Rees (Lipman 62) Easter (Haskell 69)
Tries Sackey 2, Cipriani, Kennedy, Mears Cons Cipriani 4 Pens Cipriani 2
Pacific Islands Ratuvou; Tagicakibau, Rabeni (Taione 56), Mapusua, Delasau; Hola (Bai 47), Rauluni (capt) (Martens 73), Va'a (Johnston 72), Lutui (Koto 69), Johnston (Pulu 56), Levi (Pole 62), Leawere, Naevo, Latu, Maka (Stowers 17)
Try Rabeni Con Hola Pens Hola, Bai
Referee G Clancy (Ireland)
