England has kicked off its defence of the Six Nations in bruising fashion with a hard-fought but dominant 46-15 victory over Italy.
England went into the match as heavy favourites against an out-gunned Azzurri in Rome. Eddie Jones’ boys did not disappoint, though they made to work hard for it at times despite a fast start.
It took them just three minutes for them to breach the poor Italian defence. Off the back of a lineout a silky backline move, with Owen Farrell and George Ford at the heart of it, Anthony Watson crossed in the corner untouched.
It was far too easy and was a glimpse of what was to come. England lost Ben Youngs to a bad knee injury, with Danny Care coming on, but it didn’t halt their momentum. On 10 minutes Watson had his second try. There was a sense of deja vu with England using the same brilliant backline play. After a scrum, Jonny May used his pace to break through and draw two defenders, putting Watson in the clear and the winger turned on his afterburners to score.
England were 10-0 up after 11 minutes and were cruising. But Italy, to their credit, didn’t throw in the towel. Past Italian sides would have crumbled completed at this point but they stayed in the fight. Eight minutes they hit back through a lovely floated cut-out pass from flyhalf Tommy Allan. Winger Tommaso Benvenuti ran a great line to catch it accelerate over. Suddenly at 10-7 it was game on.
However, England are not defending champions and ranked second in the world for no reason. Their crisp ball movement and speed of play was causing Italy problems and they keep probing away for an opening. The Ford and Farrell combination can be devastating on its day and this was certainly one of them. The 10 found the inside centre and Farrell dummied and strolled over.
Right before half-time Allan knocked over a penalty to make it 17-10 at the break. The Azzurri were still in the hunt at the interval. Five minutes into the second half Watson almost had a hat-trick, after a short ball from Care. But the pass had just drifted forward and the score was chalked off.
England started to turn the screw in the scrum and forced a penalty, which Farrell nailed to take the lead to 20-10. They then moved almost out of the reach in the 52nd minute from a lineout. Sam Simmonds showed power and pace on his Six Nations debut to burst over after he broke off a rolling maul. It was a deserved try for the forward who was very impressive in Rome.
#ITAvENG #CarryThemHome
Italy would not take the hint. Five minutes later and they were back in it with a fantastic finish from Mattia Bellini. The speedy winger somehow managed to get the ball down in the corner despite the attention of two England defenders. The home side had a lifeline at 27-15.
But the nail in the coffin came in the 67th minute. Ford put Farrell through a hole and the centre turned, saw Ford in support, and threw the simple pass back to the flyhalf to touch down. Ford and Farrell were having a field day, their instinctive pairing running riot in Rome. Farrell’s conversion ended a brave but beaten Italy’s chance.
Simmonds rubbed further salt into the wounds in the last six minutes when he outpaced some tired defenders. The Exeter Chief certainly has a bright future in front of him in international rugby. Then his club teammate Jack Nowell, on as a sub for Mike Brown, danced over in the right flank for the team’s seventh try thanks to Simmonds’ no-look pass. England’s annihilation was complete.
