Jamie George makes bold Six Nations claim after England’s opening round win

England skipper and hooker Jamie George insists his team can win this year’s Six Nations but admits they have to improve fast after sealing a narrow 27-24 victory over Italy in Rome on Saturday.

As the scoreline suggests, the Red Rose had to dig deep for their triumph and the Azzurri eventually outscored them three tries to two.

Italy were fastest out of the blocks and raced into a 10-0 lead during the early stages of the game. They continued to hold the upper-hand and were leading 17-14 at half-time before England roared back and took the lead courtesy of Alex Mitchell’s try and two George Ford penalties.

Meanwhile, Ireland made a sensational start to their Six Nations campaign when they claimed a 38-17 bonus-point victory over France in the Championship opener in Marseille on Friday.

Quietly confident

When asked if his team have enough quality to challenge Andy Farrell’s men for the title, George said: “Absolutely. I don’t want anyone to be involved in this squad if they don’t genuinely believe we can go and challenge the best and win this tournament.

“Looking at Ireland, they were very impressive. Not many teams go to France and perform like that. It’s a blueprint for us, and any team, to look at how they approached that game.

“For us, we’re going to be learning fast and we need to make sure we learn our lessons, being very clear about what we want to go after this game.

“We’ve got a great opportunity to be back in front of our fans against Wales next weekend and really give them something to smile about.”

England have added former Ireland international Felix Jones to their backroom staff as defence coach and at times they were caught napping in that aspect of play by the Italians.

“I’m very pleased the players found a way to change and win the game,” said England head coach Steve Borthwick.

“There were areas we improved upon and it was brilliant to see five players making their debuts in the Six Nations, which doesn’t happen very often.

“But having said that there were plenty of areas we need to be better. Italy scored too easily and we need to look very closely at things that need to be improved around our defence.”

Little comfort for Italy

The narrow defeat was the closest Italy have come to beating England in 31 attempts, although the Azzurri’s new head coach Gonzalo Quesada took little comfort from the result.

“When I spoke to the players and coaches in the changing room, no one was happy with this narrow defeat,” Quesada said.

“That’s something that’s very important for me because I didn’t care to look at the closest gap in history.

“I’m proud of the spirit showed by the team. England were close to our tryline many times but we kept them out, which is the team we want to be.”

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