England player ratings: Maro Itoje’s ‘moment of madness’ and Steve Borthwick’s ‘terrible’ bench use proves costly in catastrophic defeat

Following a disastrous 23-18 defeat to Italy in the Six Nations clash at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday, here are the player ratings for England.

15 Elliot Daly: Brought in for Freddie Steward and provided a left-footed kicking option which was useful. Also good under the high ball – certainly better than Freddie Steward has been over the past month – and linked play in attack. 6

14 Tom Roebuck: Brought back after his Murrayfield shocker, albeit he wasn’t the only one, but repaid Steve Borthwick’s faith with a fine performance. Won the high ball battle with Monty Ioane for most of the game, was a threat in possession and finished his try well. 7

13 Tommy Freeman: Scored a try but ultimately struggled to make an impact. The Italian defence marshalled him well as his carrying was not too much of a threat. 5

12 Seb Atkinson: Given an opportunity following Fraser Dingwall’s struggles against Scotland and Ireland, but it was a tough evening for the Gloucester centre. Just a few too many mistakes and he had a stinking final few minutes. 4

11 Cadan Murley: Like Roebuck and Daly, the makeshift back three did well for the most part, with Murley excellent in the air while he mopped up defensively, but he didn’t get much space to attack. 7

Lost control of the game

10 Fin Smith: Started off badly with a chargedown kick and then missed a conversion before settling into the game. However, he failed to control the middle part of the second period and then produced a shocking cross-field kick late on with England in a promising position. 5

9 Ben Spencer: Box-kicking was fine and to some extent did his job well enough, but Spencer continues to be ponderous at the breakdown. It summed him up that when England won a turnover, he took about what felt like 30 seconds to get to the contact area and stopped any potential counter-attack. 5

8 Ben Earl: Absolute workhorse once again, but so much rests on his carrying. Earl made plenty of ground but few others around him really helped in that department. 7

7 Sam Underhill: Was playing well until his yellow card and that ill-discipline played a part in reversing the momentum. 5

6 Guy Pepper: Another game where he did the dirty work effectively at close quarters. Was perhaps unfortunate with a late penalty but he didn’t listen to the referee and it was another small moment in the contest. 7

Lightweight

5 Alex Coles: Put himself about and the lineout generally held up well, while he produced a lovely pass for Freeman’s try, but his partnership with Itoje is a bit lightweight. 6

4 Maro Itoje (c): Was having his best game of the Championship until a moment of madness. Won at least three breakdown turnovers and competed superbly in the lineout, but he got himself sin-binned and that proved costly. Brainless from the captain, who has to be knocked down a couple of marks as a result. 6

3 Joe Heyes: England’s best player in the 2026 Six Nations alongside Earl, although that’s not saying much, and he had plenty of good moments here. However, it felt like Danilo Fischetti eventually got on top in the scrum and he was caught out for Tommaso Menoncello’s try. 5

2 Jamie George: Brilliant set-piece but not the player he was in the loose. George was cumbersome around the field and it sums up an England team that are lacking any sort of dynamism. 5

1 Ellis Genge: Had the better of the scrum battle with Simone Ferrari and trucked the ball up manfully, but was generally running it into a brick wall as England failed to put any pace on the game. 6

Replacements: Not the players’ fault as such but the bench was used terribly by Steve Borthwick, who will now find himself under immense pressure after this embarrassment. He left it until Italy had gone ahead before bringing on Luke Cowan-Dickie, Henry Pollock, Chandler Cunningham-South and Marcus Smith, which was utterly bizarre and confusing. England needed an injection of that aforementioned dynamism but, by that point, it was too late. 3

READ MORE: History-making Italy inflict a shattering loss on England to leave Steve Borwthick’s job on the line