England ease past Italy to stay in contention

Guinness Six Nations

England 57-14 Italy

England kept up their end of the bargain as they ensured their Six Nations challenge remains alive going into the final weekend with a 57-14 victory over Italy at Twickenham.

With Wales still on course for the Grand Slam after surviving a scare against Scotland earlier in the day, Eddie Jones’ men knew they needed to deliver against the Azzurri.

And they duly obliged as braces from Manu Tuilagi and Brad Shields, plus tries from Jamie George, Jonny May, George Kruis and Dan Robson, saw the Red Rose bounce back in style from their defeat in Cardiff.

Tries in either half from Tommaso Allan and Luca Morisi kept Italy in touch, but it was not enough to prevent England from maintaining their unbeaten record against the visitors.

The bonus-point triumph means England trail Wales by one point in the Championship, with all eyes now turning to Super Saturday and a meeting with Scotland at Twickenham.

The hosts showed their ambition from the first whistle as Owen Farrell lifted a clever kick over the Italian defensive line for Bath winger Joe Cokanasiga.

He rose highest to claim the ball with one hand before attempting an audacious mid-air offload to the waiting Tom Curry, who was unable to gather the ball.

Cokanasiga was again involved in the next attack, receiving a long, looping pass from Elliot Daly and surging towards the Azzurri defence at pace.

While he was brought down just short of the line, the ball was recycled and switched to the left flank where Curry was able to cross the line – only for the try to be ruled out for a forward pass.

The pressure on the visitors was relentless, though, and they eventually cracked on eight minutes as George proved the beneficiary of a driving maul, with Farrell converting.

Italy returned fire with their first attack of the game and levelled the scores through Allan, who slipped through the England defence and held off Ben Youngs to dot down.

Conor O’Shea’s men only had parity for a minute before May continued his try-scoring exploits after being released down the wing by Daly, with Farrell adding the extras again.

With their advantage restored, England continued to probe and scored their third try on 21 minutes, with Tuilagi scoring his first in a Red Rose shirt since 2014.

Moved to outside centre having spent the previous three games at 12, the Leicester Tigers man fended off Angelo Esposito and Michele Campagnaro before racing in from halfway.

Farrell pressed home England’s advantage with a penalty soon after to stretch the lead to 24-7 before the hosts bagged their bonus-point try with half an hour gone.

This time Tuilagi turned provider, swerving Allan and feeding the onrushing Brad Shields on his inside, with the flanker able to canter over for his first Test try.

Farrell maintained his perfect record from the tee to ensure England went into the break with a 31-7 advantage, leaving Italy with a mountain to climb to get back into the contest.

The second half started much like the first. An explosive burst from Cokanasiga through the middle saw off three Italian tacklers before he was hauled down.

Youngs recycled the ball back to Farrell, who fainted a pass to left before spreading the ball right, where Tuilagi was waiting on the wing to stroll across for his second of the game.

But as they had done earlier, Italy hit back immediately through Morisi, who dived over in the corner on 53 minutes after the visitors set up camp on the England 5m line.

A raft of changes gave England fresh impetus just before the hour mark and they added a further two tries through Kruis and Robson, with Cokanasiga providing another assist for the latter.

Shields completed the scoring with his second of the game in the closing minutes, collecting the ball and diving over the line following Kruis’ second charge down of the afternoon.