England 50 Italy 9

England defeated Italy 50-9 at Stadio Flaminio in Rome, a big RBS Six Nations victory and an efficient one, lightened by moments of individual brilliance, above all from Jason Robinson, who scored an electric hat-trick of tries.

The first of the three, which took England to 18-9, was the best as England countered.  Right-wing Josh Lewsey took the ball to and almost over the touchline before bowling the ball into Robinson -- playing in the No.12 jumper, but popping up everywhere -- who burst ahead.

The Italian fly-half Rima Wakarua waited, arms spread like a fowl in the heat, but Robinson just skipped between him and the touchline and Wakarua was not even close to tackling him.

It was a delicious moment.

Try as Italy may -- and they could not be faulted for effort -- England were going to win.  It took England a minute to get onto the scoreboard.  They kicked a short one into the middle and won the ball.  Marco Bortalami was penalised for hanging on in the tackle and Northampton's Paul Grayson kicked the goal.

This early setback seemed not to dishearten the Italians, who showed resolve and steel throughout the half.  They contested England's efforts to get possession and got plenty of their own.  They put it through the phases, but they lacked penetration to do anything really challenging.  Phases gave New Zealand-born Wakarua a clear shot at goal.  He swung his economical boot and scored.

Soon afterwards England went sweeping left.  Iain Balshaw dummied prop Andrea Lo Cicero to score neatly.  Grayson converted.  He got two more penalties in the half, as did Wakarua.  Then came Robinson's first try and England led 18-6.

A weird penalty for obstruction at an Italian-won scrum gave Grayson a penalty which he goaled.  The last score of the match also came from a scrum won by Italy, when Matt Dawson upset Paul Griffin and tall Chris Jones picked and plunged to score on his debut.

A few times England tried their moving maul with Steve Thompson in the Neil Back role.  They were not great, but one just before half-time shunted Italy back on their left.  The ball came to England's left, with deft bits of passing, for Robinson to sprint over in the corner.  That made it 26-9 at half-time.

At the start of the second half Italy had their best passage of play.  They did things with possession that were more innovative.  Apart from that period of play they were content to pass across the field, while England's Maginot line strung out to stop them.

First there was a great break by tall No.8 Sergio Parisse with the zig-zag hairdo.  That came close and may well have produced a try if he could have managed a pass.  Lewsey stopped Italy from playing and was penalised, lucky not to be sin-binned.

Then Andrea Masi, down as fullback, but playing all over the field, broke strongly down the Italian right.  He chipped, but the ball broke right -- and into touch.

The third came from Italy's new scrum-half, a remarkably hirsute New Zealander, Paul Griffen.  He just went clean through the England defence and got a pass away, but prop Martin Castrogiovanni was stopped.

Griffen, playing his first match for Italy had a better match than Andy Gomarsall did, but battled against Matt Dawson's niggling pressure.

As substitutes started to swamp the game, England did some seemingly inconsequential battering till Lewsey infused life with a dance and a dart to score.  Grayson converted and that made it 33-9, with 23 minutes to play.

Robinson got his third try when again England did some quick, short passing till he had an opening to send him screaming at the line.

Grayson got a try as a present.  He chipped.  The ball bounced high off the fingers of Griffen and into the arms of Grayson, who had to take only a single step to score at the posts -- 45-9.

At this stage the England fans sang their American spiritual in the panting heart of Catholicism's capital but the home crowd drowned out Sweet Chariot with an insistent chant of Italia.

Man of the match:  An easy one here -- Jason Robinson.

Moment of the match:  Jason Robinson's first try, the day's magic.

Villain of the match:  There were two late tackles of no particular violence (by Santiago Dellape and Silvio Orlando) and Josh Lewsey was not fair in stopping an Italian effort to score, but really it was a match of courage and honest effort.

The Teams:

England:  1 Phil Vickery, 2 Steve Thompson, 3 Trevor Woodman, 4 Ben Kay, 5 Danny Grewcock, 6 Richard Hill, 7 Joe Worsley, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio (c), 9 Andy Gomarsall, 10 Paul Grayson, 11 Ben Cohen, 12 Will Greenwood, 13 Jason Robinson, 14 Josh Lewsey, 15 Iain Balshaw
Reserves:  Matt Dawson, Jason Leonard, Mark Regan, Simon Shaw, Olly Barkley, Chris Jones, Henry Paul

Italy:  1 Leandro Castrogiovanni, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 3 Andrea Lo Cicero, 4 Marco Bortolami, 5 Santiago Dellape, 6 Andrea De Rossi (c), 7 Aaron Persico, 8 Sergio Parisse, 9 Paul Griffen, 10 Rima Wakarua-Noema, 11 Denis Dallan, 12 Manuel Dallan, 13 Cristian Stoica, 14 Nicola Mazzucato, 15 Andrea Masi
Reserves:  Roland De Marigny, Carlo Festuccia, Silvio Orlando, Mirco Bergamasco, Carlo Checchinato, Salvatore Perugini
Unused:  Simon Picone

Attendance:  28500
Referee:  Turner a.

Points Scorers:

England
Tries:  Balshaw I.R. 1, Lewsey O.J. 1, Robinson J.T. 3, Grayson P.J. 1, Jones C.M. 1
Conv:  Grayson P.J. 3
Pen K.:  Grayson P.J. 3

Italy
Pen K.:  Wakarua-Noema R. 2
Drop G.:  Wakarua-Noema R. 1