England revive their campaign against hapless Azzurri
SIX NATIONS REPORT: England bounced back from their Murrayfield disappointment to record a bonus-point win over Italy in Rome on Sunday.
The five tries to nil (33-0) win ensured England revived their campaign and sets up a potential decider with France in Round Five next month.
Following an impressive first half that saw them race into a 21-0 lead, England took their foot off the gas after Elliot Daly scored the bonus-point try in the 46th minute.
The fifth try only came five minutes from time.
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England inflicted a 34th straight Six Nations defeat on the Italians and moved three points behind leaders France.
Jamie George crossed twice with Marcus Smith, Elliot Daly and Kyle Sinckler adding further tries and Smith kicking eight points for an England side who were in control from the off.
For the Italians it was another harsh demonstration of how far they are behind the world’s leading teams as they spent much of the match trying to hold off attacks from an England team with six changes from the side that lost to Scotland.
“We put a big emphasis on today [Sunday], we were very disappointed after Murrayfield,” Smith said in his post-match reaction.
“Eddie spoke about the next job and we have put ourselves back in it with that win today [Sunday].”
He added: “I’ve never played here before, there was a special atmosphere, with loads of England fans having come out. We had to put a show on for them, we were a bit scrappy and credit to Italy but to score 33 points is always nice.”
Italy surprised the French last weekend with a fast start but it didn’t take long for England to assert their superiority.
Smith put the first points on the board with nine minutes on the clock when, after a move which swept to the left flank, he exchanged passes with Max Malins and charged over before dusting himself off to convert his own try.
Ten minutes later George dotted down with the first of his tries, the powerful hooker forcing home the five points after Harry Randall had carried the ball to Italy’s try line following a line out.
It was from another line-out that Maro Itoje thought he had added England’s third in the 32nd minute.
The 27-year-old collected before crossing with the rest of a powerful England ruck, but the TMO spotted that Nick Isiekwe was offside and ruled out the try.
However, George made sure that England ended the half on a high with his second try of the day, showing the backs how to do it by collecting prop Ellis Genge’s nicely delivered pass before diving over to take the half-time score to 21-0 after Smith cooly converted.
Daly earned England their bonus point four minutes after the break when, after a scrum, Smith managed to get the ball out to the marauding replacement who ran through to dot down.
It looked as though England might continue to run in tries but to their credit Italy then had a brief spell trying to hammer their way through England’s 22.
However, Sinckler rounded off the scoring with eight minutes remaining after Alessandro Fusco fumbled a high ball to allow England possession in Italy’s 22 and make the win even more emphatic.
The scorers
For Italy
None
For England
Tries: Smith, George 2, Daly, Sinckler
Cons: Smith 4
Teams
Italy: 15 Edoardo Padovani, 14 Federico Mori, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Marco Zanon, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Toa Halafihi, 7 Michele Lamaro (captain), 6 Braam Steyn, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 3 Pietro Ceccarelli, 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 1 Danilo Fischetti.
Replacements: 16 Epalahame Faiva, 17 Cherif Traore’, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 David Sisi, 20 Sebastian Blacks, 21 Giovanni Pettinelli, 22 Alessandro Fusco, 23 Leonardo Marin.
England: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Max Malins, 13 Joe Marchant, 12 Henry Slade, 11 Jack Nowell, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Harry Randall, 8 Alex Dombrandt, 7 Tom Curry (captain), 6 Maro Itoje, 5 Nick Isiekwe, 4 Charlie Ewels, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Jamie George, 1 Ellis Genge.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Joe Marler, 18 Kyle Sinckler, 19 Ollie Chessum, 20 Sam Simmonds, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 George Ford, 23 Elliot Daly.
Referee: Damon Murphy
Assistant referees: Andrew Brace; TBC
TMO: Brian MacNeice
