Round two of the Six Nations kicked off with England expected to make it two out of two against Italy at Twickenham. Italy, looking for a response to last week’s abject performance against Ireland, turned to stalwarts Bortolami and Burgamasco.
England 47 – Italy 17
For the first couple of minutes Italy couldn’t get their hands on the ball as first because Attwood and then Haskell pinched Italian throws into the lineout. Italy then produced a lineout steal of their own courtesy of Bortolami. They took full advantage of it and ran the ball at England. Some soft defending then allowed them to make a lot of ground inside their 22. Parisse then dummied Brown to go over out wide after 3 minutes.
Italy then dominated possession until an unfortunate clash between Brown and Masi as they stooped for a dink from Haimona led to the England fullback having to go off with a suspected concussion.
After a lengthy delay the game resumed with a scrum, from which England made a statement of intent. Their dominance was a portent of things to come.
When England were awarded a penalty on halfway Robshaw asked Ford to kick up the line. He duly obliged with a pinpoint kick that left them with a five metre lineout. From the lineout Billy Vunipola drove over in the corner but seemed to have been held up by the Italians but the replay showed he managed to ground the ball.
England then added a second try thanks to a superb solo effort from Joseph from halfway. First he showed good footwork to create space for himself and then had the pace to finish it off.
Before halftime Haimona had chances to keep Italy in touch from the kicking tee but missed all of them. England went in at the break 15-5 up.
Italy managed a response after the break when Morisi stepped Marler and then went for the line. Watson got across to make a cover tap tackle but with no other defenders in attendance Morisi bounced back up and scrambled across the line.
Italy’s resurgence was shorted lived as their indiscipline saw them pinned back into their own half. The English scrum dominance was one source of penalties for the home team. When they were awarded one from a five metre scrum Youngs tapped and went quickly and caught the defence napping as he dove over. From then on it was a case of how many as Italian heads dropped.
The Italians stuck rigidly to their game plan as they tried to run from everywhere. Their complete lack of a kicking game made them very predictable and the Englsh could come off the line quickly. The Italians lost a lot of ground as they passed to deep runners and were swallowed up by the English defence.
England quickly added another try as Ford slipped Joseph through a gaping hole in the Italian defence. He just had to use his pace for an easy run in. Shortly after Ford was replaced by Cipriani who was on the end of an England move after a good run from May. Cipriani’s first involvement was to dot down under the posts. The English then went to their maul, driving over with Nick Easter at the back to score.
Italy ralied for the final 5 minutes as Morisi showed great strength to stay in field and finish in the corner. There was little celebration at this scant consolation. Italy finally landed a kick when Allan converted. The final score was a rather one sided 47-17.
The wrap up
England’s performance wasn’t the best in the world but they managed to score six tries and increase their points difference by 30. Lancaster will be happy with the win but some of their defending will worry him. Still they’re now only one of two unbeaten teams in the competition and they’ll go to Dublin, in two weeks, still chasing a potential grand slam.
Italy will be wondering where do they go from here. They brought back the old guard this week and it didn’t work. Now Brunel needs to pick his squad’s confidence off the floor. It’s looking like another winless wooden spoon campaign unless they can find some inspiration from somewhere.
Jamie Joseph – Man of the Match
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The Game Changer
When Billy Vunipola crashed over in the corner it initially looked like a combination of Parisse and Gori had managed to hold him up.
The replay showed he’d just managed to ground the ball. England hit the front for the first time after 23 minutes and never looked back.
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The G&GR MOTM
Morisi stood out for a poor Italy with a decent performance in the centres. Two tries at Twickenham will be memorable for him in a game the rest of the Italian squad will want to forget.
Ford continued to show what he offers at 10 and Youngs was busy at 9 and was rewarded with a try. Attwood had a decent game both in the tight and the loose. But this day belonged to Jonathan Joseph a deserved MOTM having scored two tries and announced himself as a real star of this year’s Six Nations.[/one_half]
The Details
Score & Scorers
[one_half last=”no”]England 47
Tries: Joseph (26. 60), Vunipola (23), Youngs (54), Cipriani (63), Easter (68)
Conversions: Ford (28, 55, 62), Cipriani (63)
Penalties: Ford (20, 45, 57),
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[one_half last=”yes”]Italy 17
Tries: Morisi (49, 78), Parisse ( 3)
Conversion: Allan (79)
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Cards & citings
None
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Crowd
82,061
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The Teams
England
1. J. Marler, 2. D. Hartley, 3. D. Cole, 4. D. Attwood, 5. G. Kruis, 6. J. Haskell, 7. C. Robshaw (captain), 8. B. Vunipola, 9. B. Youngs, 10. G. Ford, 11. J. May, 12. L. Burrell, 13. J. Joseph, 14. A. Watson, 15. M. Brown.
Reserves: 16. T. Youngs, 17. M. Vunipola, 18. K. Brookes, 19. N. Easter, 20. T. Croft, 21. R. Wigglesworth, 22. D. Cipriani, 23. B. Twelvetrees.
Italy
1. A. De Marchi, 2. L. Ghiraldini, 3. M. Castrogiovanni, 4. G. Biagi, 5. M. Bortolami, 6. M. Burgamasco, 7. F. Minto, 8. S. Parisse (captain), 9. E. Gori, 10. K. Haimona, 11. G. Venditti, 12. A. Masi, 13. L. Morisi, 14. L. Sarto, 15. L. McLean.
Reserves: 16. A. Manici, 17. M. Aguero, 18. D. Chistolini, 19. J. Furno, 20. S. Vunisa, 21. G. Palazzani, 22. T. Allan, 23. G. Bisegni.
Referee
John Lacey
See next page for a report on Ireland v. France by “BabyBlueElephant”
