Ashton defends poor England

England coach Brian Ashton believes his team were never under serious threat against Italy despite a narrow 23-19 win in Rome.

England coach Brian Ashton believes his team were never under serious threat against Italy despite a narrow 23-19 win in Rome.

Early tries by wing Paul Sackey and centre Toby Flood, as well as fly-half Jonny Wilkinson kicking 13 points to pass the 1,000-point mark, allowed England to secure their first Six Nations triumph of the campaign.

However, England almost had their 20-6 interval lead wiped out as Italy cut the deficit to four points with four minutes remaining.

“We are quite happy to go away with the victory, even if we wanted to win by a better result,” said Ashton.

“Italy is not an easy place to play rugby. But at least we were able to get on the Six Nations scoreboard. I didn't fear we were going to lose.

“At no stage was I on the sidelines thinking, 'Jesus Christ, we are going to throw this away'.

“We finished the game on the Italian line. We learned from last weekend that games end in the 80th minute.”

Ashton saw no similarities between last weekend's defeat by Wales at Twickenham and their clash against the Italians at the Stadio Flaminio.

England blew a 19-6 lead against Wales last weekend to lose by seven points.

“I didn't feel like we watched the same game,” he said.

“I think the Italian forwards stepped up their game at half-time and what we could not do was to establish field position and that is worrying.”

Ashton praised Wilkinson on reaching a milestone and explained the reason he substituted the Newcastle fly-half shortly after the hour mark.

“He broke the Six Nations record,” said Ashton. “He set up the first try and he did better than against Wales.

“It was always my intention to give Danny Cipriani some playing time and I know what you are going to say, 'what a great substitution considering Cipriani's kick was shut down (in what led to Italy's only try of the game)'.

“But Cipriani has a lot of talent and has a long and successful international career in front of him.”

Ashton admits his team must improve but is upbeat about their chances when they meet France in two weeks' time.

“The disappointment is today we didn't push forward at half-time,” he said.

“We haven't had the best second halves in the last two games.

“But I had to make six changes to the team in respect to our opening game and that has not allowed us to get continuity.

“But I'm looking forward to the game against France. It's another challenge and we know we will step up our game.”

Ashton explained his reasons for selecting Steve Borthwick to replace Phil Vickery, who had a stomach bug, as captain.

“Given the circumstances of the late change, I just thought it was the best decision for the game,” he said.

“I knew it was going to be a physical game and I felt it was important to have a leader in the front five.”