England got their Six Nations assault off to a belated start on Sunday with a 23-19 win over Italy in Rome, in which Jonny Wilkinson notched up his 1,000th Test point.
Two early tries, from Paul Sackey and Toby Flood, gave England a bright start, but Italy's scrappers bought David Bortolussi chances from the tee to keep the Azzurri in touch, and then Simon Picone nicked a charge-down try at the end, setting up a nervy finale for Brian Ashton and his charges.
But the thunderous question cloud hanging over the England team's collective head was simply not answered. Once again, in the final 20 minutes the English went to sleep, and Italy so nearly nicked it. In the final minutes, trailing by four, the Azzurri had three attacking line-outs in promising positions, but each time one of the England jumpers stuck up a big mitt and ruined Italy's possession.
The lessons of Wales were so palpably not learned. The longer the game went on, the less interested England looked. Once again there was a dearth of leadership, once again a complete lack of direction. Ball which should have been retained was kicked away, ball which should have been kicked away was run into trouble, and all too frequently turned over. Italy enjoyed 65 per cent of the second half possession. It was a far cry from England's confident and breast-beating start.
A lot of England's confident start was about the much-maligned Wilkinson. It was his chip, regather, and exquisite offload to Paul Sackey that opened the scoring, and it was his support of Jamie Noon's kick charge-down that enabled Toby Flood to scoot over in the corner for the second.
His team-mates rallied round him at all times, tousling his hair for every good piece of play, slapping his backside when he needed a buck-up. It was as though he was the baby of the team once more, with the bigger men in the team holding his infant confidence together. Both he and his team-mates revelled in their respective roles. Perhaps he'll always be Bambi to the England team.
But there remains a fair bit of work to be done. Italy gifted England the two early tries, the first coming off an Italian throw, the second a mad moment of hesitation by David Bortolussi -- much in the vein of Iain Balshaw against Wales last week -- which allowed Noon to charge the ball down.
Beyond that, the teams were pretty well-matched, even in the first half. England always looked to have more invention outside but were a little over-choosy in when to try and use it. Instead they reverted to type, trying to march the ball through the Azzurri pack.
Italy tried to use the ball more outside, but had very little invention to talk about. The one-dimension of the tactic of bringing the Italian centres flat and having Andrea Masi fling the long pass out to the back three did buy the learning Masi more time to pass from fly-half, but it bought England's defence more time to organise themselves. None of Italy's three-quarters drew their defenders bar Gonzalo Canale, and the ball was continually shovelled to the wing where any number of drifting white shirts wrapped it up in defence.
After 16 minutes, the stats told the story. England had had only three set pieces of possession, had conceded three penalties to none, and Italy had had some eleven pieces of set piece possession. Yet when Flood scooted over for the second try, England led 14-6 -- Wilkinson's conversion taking him to four figures for international points. They thrived off the turnovers, but created very little of their own. They only won because Italy could not convert their possession into points. They will not be as lucky elsewhere.
At least in the second quarter the men in white stepped it up a bit. There was more control, more poise, more alertness at the breakdown. Wilkinson missed one sitter, but slotted two other, harder kicks and gave his team a comfortable 20-6 half-time lead -- the ideal platform, you would think, to build a handsome win from.
Yet once again, it just fell slowly, horribly, apart. Bortolussi brought Italy back to within eight with two penalties as England's discipline failed them continuously at the breakdown. Wilkinson extended the lead to eleven again -- 23-12 -- with a penalty of his own on the hour mark, but the shapelessness of England was letting Italy's bruisers up front begin to make inroads.
The Italians kept up relentless pressure in defence, ensuring that neither Flood nor Noon in the centre were able to liberate themselves or their team-mates. Up front, Nick Easter's charging threat was nullified, and nobody took the ball on with any conviction. Even the substitutes failed to change the game.
It was one of the substitutes who let Italy get to within an ace of their triumph: none other than Danny Cipriani, so talked about, so praised, so recommended for a spot in the starting XV... he caught a ball at the back, and just as Balshaw did last week, so he hesitated before booming the ball into the outstretched arms of the onrushing Simon Picone, who regathered and scampered under the posts for the try.
Bortolussi made it 23-19 with the extras, and Italy kept the pressure on. What would have happened had Simon Shaw's hand not batted away an Italy line-out in England's 22 in the final minute? It's too horrible for an England fan to contemplate, but Brian Ashton needs to contemplate it quickly, along with his team.
Man of the match: Italy are limited in most facets, but not at number eight. On the occasion of his 50th cap, Sergio Parisse delivered a performance that will ensure this match shirt should be the centrepiece of his collection. His hand-off of Paul Sackey while standing still was as much class and strength as it was comedy, and a deft little chip-kick in the first half gave you an insight into the true range of his skills. Simply magnificent.
Moment of the match: Simon Picone's try deserves a mention for setting up that finale, but we'll go for Jonny Wilkinson's chip, regather, and offload to set up Paul Sackey for the opening try. The offload -- a reverse pass while looking the other way -- was a moment of magic.
Villain of the match: None -- a fine-spirited game.
The scorers:
For Italy:
Try: Picone
Con: Bortolussi
Pens: Bortolussi 4
For England:
Tries: Sackey, Flood
Cons: Wilkinson 2
Pens: Wilkinson 3
Italy: 15 David Bortolussi, 14 Kaine Robertson, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Mirco Bergamasco, 11 Ezio Galon, 10 Andrea Masi, 9 Pietro Travagli, 8 Sergio Parisse (c), 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Josh Sole, 5 Carlo Antonio Del Fava, 4 Santiago Dellape, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Andrea Lo Cicero.
Replacements: 16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Salvatore Perugini, 18 Carlos Nieto, 19 Alessandro Zanni, 20 Simon Picone, 21 Andrea Marcato, 22 Alberto Sgarbi.
England: 15 Iain Balshaw, 14 Paul Sackey, 13 Jamie Noon, 12 Toby Flood, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Andy Gomarsall, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Michael Lipman, 6 James Haskell, 5 Steve Borthwick (captain), 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Mark Regan, 1 Tim Payne.
Replacements: 16 Lee Mears, 17 Jason Hobson, 18 Ben Kay, 19 Luke Narraway, 20 Richard Wigglesworth, 21 Danny Cipriani, 22 Mathew Tait.
Referee: Alain Rolland (Ireland)
Touch judges: Joël Jutge (France), Taizo Hirabayashi (Japan)
Television match official: Simon McDowell (Ireland)
Assessor: Paul Bridgman (England)
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