It Wasn't All Chocolate and Roses at Twickenham

England 47 – 17 Italy

England broke Italian hearts as tries from Billy Vunipola, Ben Youngs, Danny Cipirani, Nick Easter and a double from Jonathan Joseph helped to a huge home win against a strong Italy side who were controlling the game for the opening 20 minutes and put pressure on the hosts after both Serigo Parisse and Luca Morisi, who also scored a double, crossed the whitewash.

Despite the win England head coach Stuart Lancaster was disappointed with how his side started saying “I’m disappointed we didn’t start better, we need to be better than that.

“We conceded a very soft early try and a soft late try and at half-time we needed to give the guys a rev up. We needed to up the intensity and I think we achieved that in the second half.

“There are one or two areas we need to work on before Ireland but I’m delighted to get 47 points” added Lancaster.

The Azzurri shocked the Red Rose by scoring the first try of the game after three minutes as Morisi broke the gain line to set up captain Parisse to bulldoze his way through to score and despite Kelly Haimona missing the conversion Italy were full of confidence.

They looked like they were going to extend their lead on 12 minutes, but couldn’t take the chance, but time was stopped as England fullback Mike Brown took a serious knock to the head and was stretched off likely he wasn’t too badly hurt.

The time off seemed to give England the chance to regroup as on 20 minutes George Ford got the host’s first points with a penalty to make the score 5 – 3 and this opened the flood gates.

As Vunipola gave England the lead three minutes later as the number eight crashed his way over and despite the ball looking to be held up the TMO gave the try.

Even though Ford missed the chance to add the extras, but it didn’t matter as his Bath teammate Joseph ran from the halfway line and showing a clean pair of heels to extend the home sides lead and with Ford scoring the conversion it was now 15 – 5 after 27 minutes.

Italy did have the chance to close the gap to four points, but Haimona was unable to convert two penalties as both sides went into half time.

Half – Time  - England 15 – 5 Italy

It took England five minutes to continue their scoring with Ford finishes off a penalty, however the Italians weren’t giving up as Morisi scored the first of his two tries with the outside centre breaking the defensive line again to bring the score back to 18 – 10.

Once again fly half Haimona missed from the kicking tee and the visitors fightback didn’t last long when Youngs delivered a gut punch on 54 minutes when his quick thinking tap and go ended in a third try and with Ford scoring the conversion it increased England’s score to 23 – 10.

After Ford scored his third penalty the fly half was on hand to assist Joseph as an old school Bath move opened up the visiting defence to run in for his second try.

Once Ford added the extras he was replaced by Danny Cipirani and within the first minute of being on the pitch the Sale fly half scored his first try for England since 2008 and he added the conversion to make it 42 – 10.

On 68 minutes Easter added the sixth and England’s final try after grounding the ball from a strong driving maul and it was the first try for the Harlequins number eight since 2007 when he scored a hat trick against Wales.

Even though Cipirani missed the conversion England was hoping to control the last 10 minutes, however Italy wasn’t having any of it and kept fighting until 78 minutes when they were finally rewarded with Morisi also getting his second of the game.

A great line break from replacement fly half Tommaso Allan and quick hands set up the centre to score in the corner with Allan adding the extras just before the final whistle.

Scorecard
3 mins – S.Parisse (Try) – 0 – 5
20 mins – G.Ford (Pen) – 3 – 5
23 mins – B.Vunipola (Try) – 8 – 5
26 mins – J.Joseph (Try) – 13 – 5
28 mins – G.Ford (Con) – 15 – 5
HT – England 15 – 5 Italy
45 mins – G.Ford (Pen) – 18 – 5
49 mins – L.Morisi (Try) – 18 – 10
54 mins – B.Youngs (Try) – 23 – 10
55 mins – G.Ford (Con) – 25 – 10
57 mins – G.Ford (Pen) – 28 – 10
60 mins – J.Joseph (Try) – 33 – 10
62 mins – G.Ford (Con) – 35 – 10
63 mins – D.Cipriani (Try) – 40 – 10
63 mins – D.Cipriani (Con) – 42 – 10
68 mins – N.Easter (Try) – 47 – 10
78 mins – L.Morisi (Try) – 47 – 15
79 mins – T.Allan (Con) – 47 – 17
FT – England 47 – 17 Italy