Dogged England fight back in Rome
After trailing at half-time England turned things around in the second half to muscle their way to a narrow 19-15 victory over Italy in freezing conditions in Rome on Saturday.
The cold and wet conditions played a big role in the cagey early exchanges as both teams looked to find their feet on the snowy pitch by kicking quite a lot.
But a charge-down try from Charlie Hodgson and five out of five successful kicks from Owen Farrell gave the reigning Six Nations champions a hard-fought victory.
“We kept plugging away and upped the tempo in the second half. We didn’t lose our heads and it obviously came good in the end,” said Hodgson.
“We were 15-6 down, to come back and be successful in a place like this against Italy with all their experience shows what (spirit) we have, we’re obviously delighted to get the win.
“We’ve worked hard over the last couple of weeks, with these two victories (after beating Scotland in the first Six Nations weekend). A week off next week and we look forward to the Wales game and see what happens then.”
The game kicked off with a bizarre looking pitch as stewards had cleared one half of the ground of snow but not the other. In freezing conditions scores were always going to be hard to come by and it was no surprise that both sides struggled to create much.
The match sprung into life when the home side scored two quick tries just before the half-time break to take a 12-6 lead into the changerooms, and there were high hopes that the Azzurri would be able to hang on and record their first-ever victory over England.
The first try was a good piece of opportunism as right wing Giovanbattista Venditti slid over in the corner after he had snapped up a loose ball that had bounced off Ben Foden’s chest after a Tommaso Benvenuti grubber in the 22.
Foden and Benvunuti were in the thick of the action again minutes later when the England fullback tried to push a streaky pass after running a deep kick back and being wrapped up in the tackle.
Benvunuti intercepted and raced clear to score under the poles, landing a crucial blow for his team on the stroke of half-time.
The home team stretched that lead shortly after the break through a penalty from the boot of flyhalf Kris Burton who was promptly replaced by Tobias Botes by coach Jacques Brunel.
That change seemed to signal a shift in the momentum as England came storming back into the game, playing some determined rugby and putting the pressure squarely back on the Italians’ shoulders.
Flyhalf Charlie Hodgson scored his second charge-down try in two weeks, and that was followed up be a string of penalties from the steady boot of young Owen Farrell to deservedly retake the lead following a period of dominance.
The Azzurri were not helped by the fact that Botes had a terrible time off the kicking tee, missing two vital shots at goal which would have brought his team right back into the contest.
England held on bravely in the end to secure a hard-fought victory over a fiery Italian side that fell just short of what would have been a famous win.
Man of the match: Azzurri skipper Sergio Parisse had another good game and England showed impressive collective character in the second half which ultimately saw them home, but the player who made the most happen was Italian outside centre Tommaso Benvenuti who set up his team’s first try and scored the second to give the majority of the capacity crowd hope at half-time.
Moment of the match: Italy needed a bit of luck to get on the scoreboard and they got it when Benvenuti’s grubber rebounded off Foden’s chest and bounced perfectly for Venditti to collect and slide over in the corner.
Villain of the match: England fullback Ben Foden played a role in both of the Italian tries and he will be feeling the pressure to perform with Harlequins fullback Mike Brown breathing down his neck.
The scorers:
For Italy:
Tries: Venditti, Benvenuti
Con: Burton
Pen: Burton
For England:
Try: Hodgson
Con: Farrell
Pens: Farrell 4
Teams:
Italy: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Giovanbattista Venditti, 13 Tommaso Benvenuti, 12 Gonzalo Canale, 11 Luke McLean, 10 Kris Burton, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse (captain), 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Andrea Lo Cicero.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso D’Apice, 17 Lorenzo Cittadini, 18 Antonio Pavanello, 19 Mauro Bergamasco, 20 Fabio Semenzato, 21 Tobias Botes, 22 Luca Morisi.
England: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Brad Barritt, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 David Strettle, 10 Charlie Hodgson, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Phil Dowson, 7 Chris Robshaw (captain), 6 Tom Croft, 5 Tom Palmer, 4 Mouritz Botha, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Alex Corbisiero.
Replacements: 16 Rob Webber, 17 Matt Stevens, 18 Geoff Parling, 19 Ben Morgan, 20 Lee Dickson, 21 Jordan Turner-Hall, 22 Mike Brown.
Referee: Jérôme Garces (France)
Assistant referees: George Clancy (Ireland), Neil Paterson (Scotland)
TMO: Tony Redmond (Ireland)
