England 41 Italy 18
England Expected To Win
After the lesson in the Calcutta Cup last week, this was the perfect opportunity to get back into winning ways for England. The question on peoples lips was; By how many points?
This is without doubt seen as the easiest fixture in the Six Nations. The Azzurri were looking to end a 28 defeat record, but facing a wounded England team was never going to be an easy way to do so. With rumours and speculation regarding Italy and if they should be allowed to remain in the competition, this was always going to be an uphill struggle even before the whistle sounded for kick off.
Points Galore
A try in the third minute, therefore, wasn’t unexpected, but not many thought it would come from Italy. Montanna Ioane opening the scoring, but Paolo Garbisi missing the conversion. England came back into the game with Farrell kicking a penalty. A Jonny Hill try soon followed. Garbisi pulling back the score with a well taken penalty brought the game back to 8-8.
Watson scored a wonderful try with a sweet sidestep to leave a couple of would be tacklers wrongfooted, Farrell adding the extra 2 points. Shortly before halftime an awesome try on the left wing by Jonny May saw him dive high for the touchline, meaning the tackler couldn’t take him. No conversion this time though.
HALF TIME! England 20 – 8 Italy
Italy have a habit of weakening in the second half of matches, so there were going to plenty points. it only took 3 minutes for the first to go onto the board and it was an Italian penalty kick. This inspired the Azzurri who started to look like they could get another try. A great interception of a pass though by Anthony Watson, saw him race 70+ metres to score under the sticks. Farrell kicking the conversion to extend the lead.
Jack Willis – 5 Minutes.
Voted Premiership player of the year last season, he comes on after 58 minutes for his Si Nations debut. A minute later a quick tap penalty taken by Dan Robson sees the replacement scrum half brought down just short of the try line, Jack Willis, in support though, picks and drives over to score a well deserved try. Five minutes later it’s all over for the Wasps Flanker, who has done his knee after it seems he got his leg caught while being rolled away by a tackler.
With the scoreline, 34-11 and about 15 minutes left there was still time for more tries. And so, Tommaso Allan obliged to score his try and also convert the kick himself. A very quick response from England, Elliot Daly outpacing a tired looking defence to score under the posts, Farrell adding the extra points.
No further scores in the game, but wishing Jack Willis as speedy a recovery as possible after that horrible injury. Surely this will be 5 minutes he’ll never forget.
