England 59 Italy 12

The England steamroller flattened overmatched Italy at the Stadio Flaminio, winning 59-12 to set up a Six Nations Grand Slam showdown with Auld Enemy Scotland at Murrayfield on April 2.  Coach Clive Woodward's players ran in eight tries, five of them to wingers Austin Healey and Ben Cohen, with five conversions, two penalties and a drop goal to make it four out of four in this the first Six Nations tournament.

Italy, in their second home match of the season, could only muster two tries and a conversion as they battled hard to reproduce the inspirational form that propelled them to victory over Scotland six weeks ago.

The English were given an early shock from the Italian gladiators who led 7-6 after 28 minutes only for a penalty try for a high tackle on winger Austin Healey to turn the tide with the Italians down to 13 men due to two players being sinbinned.

Thereafter England moved into top gear and the back division, spearheaded by an inspired Healey, tore gaping holes at will in an outpaced Italian defence.

"You can see how Scotland got beat down here.  They really rattled us early on," said Woodward.

"It was a great test match and I am just pleased we do not have to come here for a couple of years.  Italy are a credit to the Six Nations," he added.

Woodward paid glowing credit to hat-trick man Healey, saying he gave the England back division "a massive attacking source".  Comparing this year's side to that of last year which fell at the final hurdle to Wales, Woodward said his players were now "more ruthless with our decision making".

"We can't wait to meet up again a week on Tuesday to prepare for the Scotland game." Skipper Matt Dawson also praised Italy for "making it frantic early on." "But we finished superbly in the second half," he added.

England entered the renovated 30,000-capacity Roman stadium as prohibitive favourites after thumping Ireland and Wales and scraping past France 15-9 in their three previous games.  Those results have turned the tide for Woodward, who was pilloried after England's World Cup quarter-final collapse against South Africa in November and who just six weeks ago was widely perceived to be living on borrowed time as coach.

But both Woodward and Dawson had warned against complacency against an Italian side who have proved to be poor travellers since the Scotland game -- conceding 107 points against Wales and Ireland.  Italy's Kiwi coach Brad Johnstone made four changes to the side embarrassed at Lansdowne Road, but two of them had been due to injuries to key players.  England made their first personnel change of the tournament with Darren Garforth replacing the injured Phil Vickery at tight-head prop.

Stand-off Jonny Wilkinson opened the match with two penalties for England under warm, spring-like conditions as the Italians struggled to control their emotions after the two big losses to Ireland and Wales.  But a sudden counter-attack in the eighth minute brought a barrelling try for winger Luca Martin, converted by prolific stand-off Domingo Dominguez and suddenly England were back on their heels.

The Italians could have gone further ahead after 20 minutes but Dominguez astonishingly missed from under the posts with a penalty.

The penalty try after 28 minutes signalled the end of the Italian flurry with flanker Neil Back dropping a goal after 32 minutes and Dawson scoring a fine individual try after tapping two quick penalties in the 36th minute.

England snuffed out any embers of Italian hopes early in the second period with Healey running in three tries in nine minutes, the second a remarkable solo effort from just inside the Italian half, chipping on to outpace full back Corrado Pilat for his 10th try for his country.

Healey then chipped ahead for Cohen to score in the corner after 61 minutes before the Italians finally replied with a scrappy try for winger Christian Stoica.

Further tries from Cohen and Dawson were the icing on the cake for classy England.

They now head from the most southerly Six Nations outpost to the most northerly, in search of the two points against Scotland that will assure them of the first Six Nations Grand Slam.

Italy have another tough assignment with an away match against the French in Paris.  Johnstone said his side had been much improved on the Ireland game which proved to him that Italian rugby had a bright future.

"The English changed their style of play in the second half and we did not change our style of defence to suit," he said.

Only over-confidence could prevent England from winning the Grand Slam, he added.

The Teams:

England:  1 Darren Garforth, 2 Phil Greening, 3 Jason Leonard, 4 Garath Archer, 5 Simon Shaw, 6 Neil Back, 7 Richard Hill, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio, 9 Matt Dawson (c), 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 11 Austin Healey, 12 Mike Catt, 13 Mike Tindall, 14 Ben Cohen, 15 Matt Perry
Reserves:  Neil McCarthy, Martin Corry, Andy Gomarsall, Alex King, Joe Worsley, Trevor Woodman, Iain Balshaw

Italy:  1 Andrea Lo Cicero, 2 Alessandro Moscardi, 3 Tino Paoletti, 4 Carlo Checchinato, 5 Andrea Gritti, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 7 Walter Cristofoletto, 8 Andrea De Rossi, 9 Alessandro Troncon (c), 10 Diego Dominguez, 11 Denis Dallan, 12 Luca Martin, 13 Nicolas Zisti, 14 Cristian Stoica, 15 Corrado Pilat
Reserves:  Massimo Cuttitta, Aaron Persico, Giacomo Preo
Unused:  Matteo Mazzantini, Orazio Arancio, Carlo Orlandi, Andrea Scanavacca

Attendance:  30000
Referee:  Lewis a

Points Scorers:

England
Tries:  Dawson M.J.S. 2, Healey A.S. 3, Cohen B.C. 2, Penalty Try 1
Conv:  King A.D. 1, Wilkinson J.P. 4
Pen K.:  Wilkinson J.P. 2
Drop G.:  Back N.A. 1

Italy
Tries:  Martin L. 1, Stoica A. 1
Conv:  Dominguez D. 1