England back to winning ways
England kick off Six Nations campaign with 36-11 victory over Italy
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Saturday, 07, Feb 2009 10:24
England kicked off their Six Nations campaign with a 36-11 victory over Italy, writes Richard James at Twickenham.
The hosts were a long way from their best and coach Martin Johnson still has a lot of work to do if his team are to compete with holders Wales next week, but after the comprehensive defeats suffered in the autumn the victory was the most important thing.
The game got off to a blistering start when recalled England fly-half Andy Goode crossed for a try within the first two minutes.
After winning Italy's own lineout, quick phase rugby from the hosts saw the ball passed out to Goode who followed up his own grubber kick to cross the try line, which he then followed up the successful conversion.
The try appeared to shake Italy a bit and Mauro Bergamasco, playing a scum half instead of his usual position of flanker, was continually indecisive and throwing wayward passes.
England then almost furthered their lead after 14 minutes after some brilliant link up work between winger Mark Cueto and full back Delon Armitage, with the former slicing through the Italian defence only for a loose pass from Armitage to centre Jamie Noon on the wing resulting in the move breaking down.
Three minutes later though England again crossed the try line with scrumhalf Harry Ellis taking advantage of a wonderful pass off the ground from James Haskell. The Lecicester player finished in style, ducking under two advancing Italian defenders to score.
Goode's kicking radar continued to be a bit off though and after missing a previous penalty he then missed the conversion.
England, however, were continually being presented with opportunities on a plate. And after 17 minutes Bergamasco threw yet another loose pass which fell invitingly at the feet of Goode who kicked through for centre Riki Fluety to score under the posts, and with a successful conversion England moved into a 19-0 lead.
The substitution of Andrea Marcato for Luke McLean turned Italy's fortunes somewhat and the Calvisano player soon kicked the visitors first points of the game from a penalty.
The points were soon cancelled out though when Italian prop Martin Castrogiovanni gave away another penalty straight from the kickoff which Goode slotted over to restore England's 19 point lead.
After another impressive display, James Haskell's tendency to doing something silly became apparent once more, when a needless trip four minutes from half time saw him sin-binned.
McLean then kicked another penalty to end the half 22-6 down.
Realising his gamble wasn't playing off Italy coach Nick Mallet decided to take Bergamasco off during the break, replacing him with Giulio Toniolatti.
It then took England 14 minutes of the second period to break down the hosts once more when a break by Fluety in the mid-field saw Ellis sprint free to score his second try of the game, running some 30 metres to cross under the post. Goode then kicked the subsequent conversion to move England into a commanding 29-6 lead.
England coach Martin Johnson then took the opportunity to make a few changes, amongst which were Northampton's Ben Foden, making his England debut as a replacement for Ellis.
One substitute that didn't make the desired impact though was Shane Geraghty, on for Flutey, who was sin-binned on 63 minutes, as England's problems with ill discipline continued to raise their ugly head.
Italy weren't ready to give up though and after coming close to scoring a few times and their hard work eventually paid off after 70 minutes when Mirco Bergamasco crossed in the corner after some impressive build-up play which saw England's defence go missing
The visitors would probably have taken the score 29-11 score-line at that point but despite being considerably worse in the second half, England's superiority paid off and Cueto crossed the tryline with two minutes to go, with Goode slotted over the conversion to make the final score 36-11.