| England: (20) 41 |
| Tries: Hill, Watson 2, May, Willis, Daly; Pen: Farrell; Cons: Farrell 4 |
| Italy: (8) 18 |
| Tries: Ioane, Allan; Pens: Garbisi 2; Con: Garbisi |
England found flashes of attacking flair to bounce back from last weekend’s Scotland defeat and claim a six-try Six Nations win against Italy.
Monty Ioane’s early try caused a scare at Twickenham, before England’s Jonny Hill and Anthony Watson crossed.
Wing Jonny May closed out the first half in style, leaping out of a tackle to touch down in spectacular fashion.
After the break, Watson’s impressive intercept try sealed a bonus point for the defending champions.
Substitute back row Jack Willis scored from short range but was almost immediately carried off the pitch on a stretcher after sustaining a knee injury.
Replacement back Tommaso Allan added a second try for Italy before Elliot Daly crossed for England to seal victory and offer some solace to fans after last weekend’s unexpected loss.
England will now be hoping for a Wales win against Scotland or Irish victory over France in the weekend’s other two fixtures to get their title bid back on track.
Spectacular May try ends first half on a high
All the talk pre-match was about England needing to put in a performance as they looked to recover from a poor showing in defeat to Scotland, with a 28th consecutive win against Italy taken as a given.
Italy head coach Franco Smith is building for the future with a youthful team centred around 19-year-old scrum-half Stephen Varney and 20-year-old fly-half Paolo Garbisi.
England head coach Eddie Jones looked to have different plans, having dropped centre Ollie Lawrence for the game and avoided giving scrum-half Harry Randall or centre Paolo Odogwu a debut in the easiest of the Six Nations fixtures.
Initially it looked as though youth would win the day as, after a few phases of lively attack with Welsh-born Varney in the eye of the storm, the Italians took an unexpected lead.
Garbisi sent the ball left to full-back Jacopo Trulla, who drew in Daly to allow Ioane to cross in the left corner after just three minutes.
After the restart England looked woken from a slumber and they sped the ball left, but room for May on the left wing was wasted as Daly’s pass flew into touch.
Owen Farrell trimmed Italy’s lead to two with a penalty in front of the posts then centre Henry Slade entered the fray, keen to cement his place in Jones’ changing midfield.
His grubber kick was gathered by George Ford and Itoje took the ball to within metres of the tryline but eventually it was fellow lock Hill who went over from close range for his first international try.
England did not make any line breaks against Scotland last weekend and Watson looked fiercely motivated to single-handedly change that this time around, coming in from the wing on an angle to scythe through the wall of blue.
His efforts were wasted as hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie – starting in place of Jamie George – was penalised at the breakdown and Garbisi evened the scores.
Slade injected a bit of fire into the Twickenham chill once more as he chased his own kicks along the floor and across the tryline, but he did not manage to finish the job.
England did eventually get a second try as fast hands from May released Slade on the left wing, then the hosts hurried the ball to the opposite flank where Watson stepped past Varney to score.
And Jones’ side finished the half with aplomb as Daly found May with space on the left and the wing jumped over Luca Sperandio’s tackle for a spectacular touchdown to add to his already packed showreel.
More to follow.
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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