The pair’s exchange has become a running in-camp gag in the build-up to England’s final-round meeting with France on Saturday, with Smith, 5ft 11in, 13st 13lb and 15 caps, joking that he and Itoje, 6ft 5in, 18st 8lb, 101 caps, would settle a difference of opinion physically, rather than verbally, next time.

“I thought it was funny,” said Smith. “Me and Maro have been joking about it this week and I told him if he shouts at me like that again, I’m going to punch him!”

Itoje, usually a composed presence on and off the pitch, insisted his raised voice was not a lost temper.

“I didn’t really lose it!” he laughed. “You don’t often see me with a mic. I’m not always mic’d up but maybe I’m portraying a false image.

“Fin is my guy. The way I try to do things is to hear what my key decision-makers think of what is going on, and whoever plays 10 will obviously have an important role in that.

“It’s a good thing that people in the team feel they can express a view, and in sport, if anything, that’s the most kosher of fallouts that the world has ever seen.

“We have had far more blunt conversations between ourselves and other team-mates.”

England have had cause for frank discussions during this Six Nations after three successive defeats left their title aspirations in tatters.

Another against France would mean England finish with a return of one win from a Six Nations campaign for the first time since the tournament expanded in 2000.

England have only lost four games in a single edition of the 143-year-old championship twice previously – in 1972 and 1976.

Smith, who made his first England start in the victory over France last year at the beginning of a 12-match winning streak, is in an unfamiliar position.