For the first time since 2019 England have managed to win their opening Six Nations fixture. It did not come without the occasional ripple of alarm, particularly when Italy established a 17-8 lead in the first half, but tries from Elliot Daly and Alex Mitchell plus 17 points from George Ford’s boot enabled Steve Borthwick’s reshuffled side to finish narrowly in credit.
No one would remotely describe the performance as perfect, as the new captain, Jamie George, had warned in advance. But squinting into the bright sun on a glorious Roman afternoon it was at least possible to see the beginnings of a team slightly less afraid of their own attacking shadow. Tommy Freeman, in particular, added an extra dimension as a roaming wing, wearing 14 but regularly popping up to pose a threat all over the field, and one of the handful of Red Rose debutants, the Exeter flanker Ethan Roots, was named man of the match.
England’s lineout was collectively a cut above and by the end a total of five new caps, including the talented Chandler Cunningham-South and Manny Feyi-Waboso, had received their first taste of Test rugby. The downside was the teams’ failure to kick on in the final quarter, with Italy winning the try count 3-2 via a last-gasp breakaway score from the wing Monty Ioane that ensured the slimmest winning margin of this fixture.
For Borthwick, a win is a win but, in their first outing since collecting a bronze medal at last year’s World Cup, this was ultimately not quite the fast start they had been hoping for. Lewis Hamilton will certainly hope to be quicker off the line when he joins Ferrari next year and Wales’s Warren Gatland may pick up one or two hints of encouragement from the match video for his side’s visit to Twickenham next Saturday.
None of the participants could have wished for more ideal conditions. There was not a breath of wind rustling the umbrella pines in the shimmering Villa Borghese and for those travelling England fans soaking up the February sunshine it felt as if spring had arrived early. When George first dreamed of leading England in the Six Nations, he likely never considered the potential need to slap on some sunscreen before kick-off.
Nor did he probably bargain for the sight of Eddie Jones sitting in the stands. Now the coach of Japan, Jones will be crossing samurai swords with England on two occasions this year and the chance of an early sighter was clearly too good to miss. For his former charges there still seems to be no escape.
Initially, some bad old habits were also in danger of resurfacing. Three penalties inside the first six minutes gave Italy the chance to settle and after an early penalty for offside kicked by Tommy Allan it was the hosts who registered the game’s first try. Through a gap in the onrushing defence surged their No 8, Lorenzo Cannone, and the ball fell kindly for the scrum-half, Alessandro Garbisi, to score by the posts.
If a 10-0 lead felt too good to be true from Italy’s perspective, the ecstasy did not last long. Freeman is a player of genuine promise and he showed a glimpse of it here, slaloming over from his wing to provide the extra man and put Daly into the left corner. When England opt to play they have the players to cause some damage on the edges.
Then again, so do the Azzurri. A lovely midfield flick from Juan Ignacio Brex opened up a little more space down England’s left and, with Freddie Steward isolated, a simple scoring pass from Tommaso Menoncello to Allan put the finger-waving full-back over for a second first-quarter score. Great from an Italian perspective, too easy from the visitors’ point of view.
England needed to take the sting out of the contest and duly did so. Italy will not have minded hugely when England opted for a regulation three points from bang in front of the sticks rather than pushing for seven but Ford then put over a second penalty inside five minutes to cut the half-time deficit to 17-14.
Having enjoyed the better of territory and possession in the opening 40 minutes, though, England had no reason to panic. Sure enough, within five minutes of the restart they were ahead, Mitchell twisting around and through the cover to score the kind of opportunistic try that is becoming his trademark.
Italy, making better decisions than they did in their wounding World Cup defeats by New Zealand and France, did their best to mount another surge but a missed penalty from Allan, which would have reduced the margin to four points, always felt like it might be costly.
At the other end, by contrast, Ford kept chipping over three-pointers, useful on the day but denying England any prospect of a try bonus point, with Daly also shown a yellow card late on for a trip.
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While a slight inconsistency of performance was to be expected with so many absentees and injuries – Ellis Genge pulled out on the eve of the game with a bad foot – there was not a huge amount to identify England as title contenders on a par with, say, Ireland. Defensively there is work to be done and Ford’s five penalties and conversion could not entirely disguise an occasional lack of midfield thrust.
Equally, it is premature to make too many sweeping judgments. All you can now say for certain is that England have finally shaken off their first weekend Six Nations hoodoo.
