Saturday’s striking Six Nations games in Dublin and Edinburgh always felt like a potentially hard act to follow and so it proved. England will be suitably glad of this first victory under Steve Borthwick’s stewardship but it would stretching it to describe this as a contest which will linger long in the memory.
If there was no doubting the strength or effectiveness of England’s driving maul and their set piece, there was not always consistent fluency elsewhere until the talented replacement wing Henry Arundell provided a late spark with a sharp try on his Twickenham debut. The excellent Jack Willis, who suffered a serious leg injury in this fixture two years ago, also scored one of his side’s five tries on a day when the outcome was never really in doubt.
Italy had been hoping this might be the day they finally grasped a historic first win over England but that possibility had been all but extinguished by half-time when the hosts led 19-0. Ollie Chessum, Jamie George and a penalty try were their other scorers but the visitors ended up winning the second half 14-12. For the second successive week England did not finish as strongly as they would have liked and kicked the ball away on a couple of occasions when keeping it in hand would probably have yielded more joy.
On the plus side their defence was much improved and Ollie Lawrence at inside-centre enjoyed a forceful return to Test rugby. While it is clearly unrealistic to expect England to be operating at Ireland’s level after just a couple of games under Borthwick, the talk afterwards of a modest step forward has to be seen in a wider context. The Red Rose rebuild still has a way to go.
Italy were also frustrated afterwards. Aside from the mazy running of their talented full-back Ange Capuozzo, the Azzurri were initially as error-prone as they had been electric against France just a week previously. The loss of their captain Michele Lamaro with a thigh injury robbed them of bristling edge and, until late in the game when more space began to appear, the nimble Capuozzo was hounded and harried at every turn.
England again looked like a side still in development but they did unveil one super-strength, to borrow one of Borthwick’s favourite phrases. The driving maul may not have been what every Twickenham patron was looking for to brighten a grey Sunday afternoon but it was working so well that England had no need to look elsewhere for their three first-half tries.
Just 12 minutes had elapsed when the clearly energised Willis burst clear at the front of an ominous white-shirted rumble to open the scoring. With Italy leaking an increasing number of penalties, Lorenzo Cannone was sent to the sin-bin and, against 14 men, the home side again took advantage of a prime short-range opportunity, with Ellis Genge cleverly slipping the ball to Chessum to make the lanky lock an extra precious inch or two of space to exploit.
Italy simply could not catch a break, whistled almost to a standstill at times. It encouraged England to be slightly more adventurous and some lovely deception on the right from Max Malins put the winger clear and the supporting Jack van Poortvliet completed the move. Unfortunately for England, Lawrence had obstructed an Italian midfield defender and the score was rubbed off.
It didn’t matter; England still had an advantage and opted to kick to the corner and another determined maul drove a delighted George over. The hooker has also had a rollercoaster season but here, at last, was a moment of undiluted joy.
Farrell, having potted the first two conversions, missed this one but it already appeared largely immaterial. Italy, though, emerged after the interval with renewed spirit and it was no less than they deserved when Capuozzo finally surged clear and Italy were subsequently rewarded with a try by their tighthead Marco Riccioni.
It was becoming more of a contest, with Farrell on the receiving end of a robust tackle from Sebastian Negri which ended with both players locked in an angry embrace on the floor. Borthwick came down to the touchline to ask if the incident would be reviewed but was waved back to his seat by the fourth official.
Normal service was soon resumed, however. England managed to slow the game down again and when Simone Ferrari pulled down another dominant maul to concede a penalty try, a bonus point and another yellow card it was 26-7 with 30 minutes still to play.
The rest was supposed to be all about how much England’s bench could maximise their visitors’ discomfort but Alessandro Fusco, just on as replacement scrum-half, darted over for a second Italian try. Only when Arundell sniped over in the left corner after Alex Mitchell had made initial inroads did the home supporters belatedly have something really eye-catching to cheer.
