Restrained: Alex Goode
England were left frustrated by a resurgent Italian performance as the hosts kept their Grand Slam hopes alive with an 18-11 win.
Six penalties from Toby Flood kept England ahead on the scoreboard as Italy recovered from a 15-3 deficit at the start of the second half to leave Twickenham on edge in a dramatic finish.
The Azzurri resembled the side that were so impressive in their opening game of the championship against France - hounding England in defence and creating ample attacking opportunities in the second half against an opponent who they have never defeated.
Only desperate defence from England going into the final 10 minutes kept the hosts clinging on to the lead, with all thoughts of a first Grand Slam in a decade put firmly on hold.
England signalled their intent early on with a penalty from Toby Flood after just three minutes - the Leicester fly-half coming in for the injured Owen Farrell.
Mike Brown came close to the opening try after Luciano Orquera's kick was charged down, but the ball eluded him as he tried to make the grounding.
The hosts enjoyed all the possession throughout the opening minutes but were unable to find the opening try, Flood settling for another three points to leave England 6-0 up after 15 minutes.
Italy responded on their first visit to England's half with a penalty from Orquera after an effective driving maul, lifting the voices of the visiting fans. The Azzurri supporters grew even louder minutes later when Alessandro Zanni burst down the left touchline after Sergio Parisse's inside flick - only for the ball to be knocked on.
England's large swathes of possession created another try-scoring opportunity for the hosts, but Flood's attempted score was ruled out. Italy then lost scrum-half Edoardo Gori to the sin-bin for taking out Flood off the ball.
The hosts' power at the scrum was again capitalised on by Flood, who added a further three more points after a fine break from Brown to leave England 12-3 up going into the interval after a frustrating half for the home fans.
Another Flood penalty at the start of the second half extended the gap and left Italy chasing the scoreboard, Orquera responding with a penalty of his own after England collapsed at the scrum.
Care's sloppy box kick was then taken out of the air by Andrea Masi and Orquera's delicate chip across to the left wing was snapped up by Luke McLean to score in the corner.
Giovambattista Venditti then carried down the right touchline to leave English tacklers on the deck, but Orquera's resultant penalty attempt fell well wide to the right - failing to make the most of a passage of play where England lost control.
The introduction of Ben Youngs steadied Flood and England crept back to a seven-point advantage thanks to another penalty from the Leicester number 10.
Italy however continued to produce some of their best rugby in this year's championship, finding space down the left-hand side through McLean.
It meant that England were clinging on desperately to their lead as time ticked away, until a knock-on five metres from their own try line led to a collective sigh of relief from the 82,000 crowd.
Twickenham expected a thrashing - the humbled crowd left booing and counting their blessings.
Man of the Match: A whole host of Italian candidates to choose from in defeat, with Alessandro Zanni getting the nod ahead of his captain Parisse, Masi and winger McLean.
Moment of the Match: Courtney Lawes' crucial line-out steal with two minutes remaining that helped England ease the Italian pressure.
Villain of the Match: Starting his first Test for some time, Toby Flood may have kicked well off the tee but struggled to get England's backs firing.
The scorers:
For England:
Pens: Flood 6
For Italy:
Try: McLean
Pens: Orquera 2
Yellow Card: Gori
The teams:
England: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Mike Brown, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Danny Care, 8 Tom Wood, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 James Haskell, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Mako Vunipola.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 David Wilson, 18 Joe Marler, 19 Courtney Lawes, 20 Tom Croft, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Freddie Burns, 23 Billy Twelvetrees.
Italy: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Giovambattista Venditti, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Luke McLean, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Edoardo Gori, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Robert Barbieri, 6 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Joshua Furno, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (c) 1 Alberto De Marchi.
Replacements: 16 Davide Giazzon, 17 Andrea Lo Cicero, 18 Lorenzo Cittadini, 19 Antonio Pavanello, 20 Francesco Minto, 21 Simone Favaro, 22 Tobias Botes, 23Tommaso Benvenuti.
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), Mathieu Raynal (France)
Television match official: Simon McDowell (Ireland)
By Ben Coles
@bencoles_
Comments
Fatflanker says...
My goodness the refereeing this year has been poor.
Posted 21:02 10th March 2013
thistle_dave says...
So for next weekend - am I correct that:
1) Wales beat England by at least 8 points - Wales win 6N. Or..
2) Wales can beat England by 7 points and still win the 6N (would then be equal on PD) as long as England don't score more tries than Wales next week (Wales are currently tries +1)
...?
Posted 21:00 10th March 2013
LondonWasp says...
to be fair to ther italians, if they played like what they did today, against scotland and wales they could have easily beaten scotland and given wales a far harder game.
Posted 21:00 10th March 2013
vince12 says...
Exciting game to say the least, i think the main problem for Italy is to find performances continuity and in my opinion too many England players + managing staff were already thinking of the Wales game making the mistake of under-estimating the Azzurri today. No more easy games in this competition and all for the good of Rugby.
Posted 20:48 10th March 2013
johnniec63 says...
the ref won that game for england the number of missed forward passes the "knock on" from italy even when he consulted hisown linesman only to overrulehim......he was a saviour to england the 16th man against italy and a total bell end
Posted 20:10 10th March 2013
ArmchairGeneral says...
Dull dull dull. What is Mike Catt doing????
Posted 19:56 10th March 2013
astrospange says...
Floods kicking game deserted him. 2 easy touch finders from early penalties missed which seemed to reduce the pressure on Italy. If you are going to play Flood then BYoungs should play 9. It was too flat which is Floods playing style.
Posted 19:55 10th March 2013
Nastyned says...
Hopefully today will finally stop the "Flood gets the back line working better than Farrell/Wilko" thread. He did his usual sideways shuffle and closed down his centres' space. Still don't understand why Ashton is getting so much flak, thought he worked hard today and would have had two tries if people passed. Goode and Brown missed too many tackles.
Posted 19:38 10th March 2013
Axax says...
What a game from Italy! Absolutely brilliant! This is the very same Italy that beat France but England still managed to get a win, so congratulations and that is a real achievement. Were it Wales or Ireland instead of Italy I am sure most people would be happy with this win. But we really need to get used to amazing Italian teams and stop considering them as second class only. In any case that was a wonderful game.
Posted 19:29 10th March 2013
lacroix says...
lucky, lucky england..italy put in a great second half and were very unlucky not to get a draw, or even a win which no one could say they would not have deserved. as previously mentioned by others england got away with slowing down italian ball in that last prolonged italian attack...but other than a poor decision by clancy which cost them , italy didnt play well in the first half and gave away too many cheap penalties.
peculiar swings in superiority in the scrum during this game i thought.
Posted 19:02 10th March 2013
mlbp says...
Italy:
De Marchi gave away a couple of penalties in defence but he held his own in the scrum after some difficult first few moments. He tackled hard and was always one of the first men in support.
Ghiraldini was superb as always. I don¿t know why he always gets substituted. Giazzon did well but Ghiraldini still had plenty of petrol left in the tank.
Castro is starting to look a bit too long in the tooth. Anyway I always thought that he has always been a bit overrated. Cittadini played a lot better than him and was dominant against Vunipola at times.
Furno had a cracking match. Geldenhuys was his usual hard self in the tight. Minto and Pavanello added their physicality at the end with their fresh legs. Italy seem to have more depth in the lock department than France, Ireland or Scotland right now.
Barbieri didn¿t play as well as Favaro did in other games. I was surprised to see Favaro dropped to the bench. He had been one of the best Italy performers in other matches.
Zanni and Parisse were their usual selves. What players! They could start for any other 6 nations team for sure.
Gori had a good game. His yellow card is a typical reflex. Almost unavoidable¿ I don¿t understand why he was substituted. Botes didn¿t put a foot wrong either.
It¿s a pity Orquera missed his kicks. That¿s the only blemish in his game. Great decision making in most plays.
The Gonzalos were hard in the tackle and their rush defence was a marvel to see.
Venditti always has his usual lapse (a costly one it could have been) but he¿s such a powerful runner.
Luke McLean had his best match with the Azzurri ever.
Masi is a rock. And he¿s playing out of position.
Clever coaching by Brunel overall. Intelligent defence having Orquera away from the big English ball carriers. Great leadership from the front by Parisse.
Posted 18:55 10th March 2013
papachinzo says...
How much did England pay Clancy ?? He never gave Italy a break... constantly let England away with penalties similar to what Italy were getting blown up on.
I want to know why referee's like Clancy and Poite are getting these types of games, when they're clearly not able for them !!
On a positive: Italy looked classy, with a good Fly-Half they would have trounced this below average English side, who really have the Referees and poor opposition to thank for their imminent championship win...
If Wales win next week, it will only be due justice for the Rugby World.
Posted 18:52 10th March 2013
lawynd says...
England were woeful, well and truly woeful. I don't know what was practiced in terms of tackling this week but everyone seemed to be trying for a monster hit, rather than just tackling the player and bringing them to the ground - has Farrell's scheme been found out? Why Barritt didn't throw the pass to Croft I'll never know and for my money, Goode and Ashton have to be shown the door, as they've done nothing in more than just this game to justify their inclusion.
Does anyone know what Flood has done to Guscott for him to be so vicious in his character assassination?
For those of you bemoaning Clancy, I suggest you look at every ruck where Italy flopped straight off their feet, didn't roll away and generally slowed England's ball down too. He was woeful, as usual, but didn't favour either team with it.
Posted 18:52 10th March 2013
mlbp says...
England analysis:
Vunipola didn¿t push straight in some of the scrums and wasn¿t penalized. Had the upper hand against a Castro who seems to start to look a bit long in the tooth (that or he¿s carrying one too many knocks). He¿s a monster as a ball carrier.
Tom Youngs is learning the trade day by day. Great prospect for England. His lineout throws were better than ever in the white jersey.
Dan Cole struggled at times against the Italian front row but he had some good steals in the loose.
Parling and Lauchbury are excellent in open play. They tackle hard and read the game perfectly. They didn¿t have their best game (they picked up knocks, I hope they are not too serious).
Robshaw is a monster player. He leads by example. He was everywhere today.
Haskell and Wood didn¿t look as focused as in other games. England need a true number 8 on the field. I cannot see a true dominant English 8 emerging, though.
Care is fast round the fringes but as Young he always makes the odd mistake or has some lapses in concentration that cost his team dear.
Flood didn¿t orchestrate things well today. At least he kicked his goals and kept England ahead.
Ashton is in his poorest form. Defensively he seems a liability. I never rated him as a player anyway, too much hype, as there is about a lot of the English players anyway.
Brown is the opposite of Ashton. He delivers always. Excellent player, he can play in both positions.
Goode is a good defender but today he looked out of sorts at times.
Quiet day for Tuilagi. Fast when defending but no threat in attack. Barritt is his usual tackling beast but he doesn¿t offer much in attack.
I loved the way England rushed in defence but they were poor at execution in attack today. Italy smothered them at times with their forward power and their scramble defence was excellent so England couldn¿t capitalize.
Posted 18:40 10th March 2013
wasey says...
Could not agree with heart_of_oaks anymore. We need to sort out the back three before Wales of we could easily lose this six nations this year. Three players who should be no where near an England shirt right now are flood, Ashton and Goode. Ashton did absolutely nothing a part, missed tackles, very few attacking chances and hardly ever contested kick and chases. Flood was good for taking his chances but missing touch and trying to run by himself is a joke for a player like him. Goode was shocking today under the high ball he was solid but with ball in hand he looked lost. Lancaster needs to play Brown and full back with foden and may on the wings. Fly half should be Freddie burns, before the tournament started he was the in form fly half and with Farrell playing out side centre for Saracens. He offers very little in attack and throwing paddies on the field against France he is not the man for us. Role on the changes or be prepared to lose to wales.
Posted 18:26 10th March 2013
mlbp says...
@benski
Neutral indeed I am when I watch a game of rugby. I am not from any of the best 20 rugby nations in the world and I have been watching rugby without favouring any team for the past 30-odd years, and my country doesn't have a decent rugby club or acceptable national team.
Posted 18:07 10th March 2013
stephen51 says...
it is good the lads saved their worst performance of the six nations for the weakest opponent. the irish side would have run them out of dublin on this day of lackluster effort.
Posted 17:57 10th March 2013
heart_of_oak says...
Italy were magnificent and we were crap.
I'm not making excuses but :
1. Please can we now stop playing people out of position ?
2. Can we select some proper wingers who can score ?
3. Can we have Brown at full back ?
4. How many more chances is Ashton going to get ?
5. Can we send the team to tackling school ?
To beat Wales in Cardiff a different team will need to turn up.
Posted 17:54 10th March 2013
admack says...
I hope to god that Ashton gets nowhere near a lions jersey
Posted 17:50 10th March 2013
benski says...
Italy bought their best game by far to Twickers today. Everyone's having a moan about England and, yeah, they looked a touch disjointed at times but I think Italy would have beaten any of the other 6 nations teams with that play today so... Well done England, you could see by the body language after the final whistle how much everyone had put into it.
@mlbp... neutral? hmmmm.
Posted 17:46 10th March 2013