Six Nations: Five takeaways from England v Italy as Steve Borthwick’s men go back to basics in promising showing

James While
Lewis Ludlam and Alex Dombrandt for England

Following a 31-14 victory for England over Italy in their Six Nations fixture, here’s our five takeaways from the match at Twickenham on Sunday.

The top line

In a game that stuttered and misfired in the first half, but provided a lot more entertainment in the second, England recorded a vital first win under Steve Borthwick as they overcame a tired looking Italy.

It’s easy, in this situation, to say ‘it’s only Italy’, but given the recent form of the Azzurri in the last 12 months, this Six Nations win was a lot more effective and convincing that might first appear.

It was a performance built upon basics and with Owen Farrell orchestrating a much tighter style of rugby, one that showed intelligent use of his assets and empathetic tactics over the looser and more opportunistic style that we’ve seen with Marcus Smith at 10 in recent weeks.

Helped in some part by the outstanding Player of the Match Ollie Lawrence, England benefitted hugely from the host of intelligent changes made by the coaches; Lawrence ran 10 carries for 80 metres, hit nine tackles and although he made a couple of handling errors, he gave England a fast and direct carrying edge off Farrell’s shoulder in attack.

England also played a much more intelligent kicking game – abdicating kicking overly long to allow Italy‘s lightening quick back three into the game, they kicked shorter and chased much better, with Max Malins at the heart of all things aerial.

Italy will be disappointed in their showing – they didn’t have the possession or gainline power they’d hoped for despite another fabulous showing from Juan Ignacio Brex in the centre and of course, the flying Ange Capuozzo at full-back. They had their running moments but failed to get anything near the platform they achieved against France in Rome last week and they’ll be bitterly disappointed not so much about the defeat but more so that they failed to fire the shots that they’re so capable of doing.

Willis returns

England have struggled in terms of back-row balance for some time now, and that coincided with Jack Willis’ injury woes. It was always a question of ‘he might’ rather than any form of concrete proof, but his 53 minutes at Twickenham were absolutely outstanding, not only in his personal contribution, but in terms of the agenda and example he set for others to follow.

A try, 22 tackles, one of them huge in dominance, seven carries for 63 metres and a turnover are exceptional stats by anyone’s measure, but the lift he gave to his teammates just by being out there was palpable – almost that they felt they had a man to rely on and a player to lead their defence (and at times, attack).

Around him, Lewis Ludlam was again hugely effective, a man that consistently makes ugly metres when options are limited and hits tackle after tackle in the cause, and in between them, Alex Dombrandt was back to carrying hard and straight without attempting the miracle plays.

With Maro Itoje upping his game a number of notches after some stinging criticism in the week, England’s pack looked to have bite at last, with the biggest snarls coming from their openside, the outstanding Willis.

Back to basics

In contrast to last weekend, England’s defence and lineout actually looked like the thinking of Kevin Sinfield and Borthwick respectfully.

With Willis in searing form, he set the agenda of the rush from the 10/12 channel, finding powerful and eager cohorts in the excellent Lawrence and Itoje who was back to his havoc-creating best in both ruck and close contact. The defence was fast and solid, and importantly gave Italy no time to create any meaningful exit strategy. The speed up caused the Azzurri no end of issues in their own half, compounded by any meaningful Italian kicking option in clearance other than their 10. Often, Italy cost themselves metres by passing back to a deeper kicker in their own 22 instead of the acting half-back clearing at the point of contact, leaving them pinned in their own half for long periods of the match.

A week is a long time in rugby and clearly Borthwick has spent a great deal of that standing on his famous stepladder, honing and refining a lineout that was considerably more potent that against Scotland. Mainly working off the same five-man pod as last week, variety was the order of the day – extending past 15 metre to bring offside out of the game, or breakaway moves using Willis as a pivot to bring in the big running of Dombrandt and Lawrence. Ollie Chessum, Itoje and Ludlam didn’t lose a ball all day, the maul was a central part of their attacking strategy and it was clear that in the space of seven days, England have made quantum strides in sorting out the issues they experienced against Scotland.

Italian fatigue

With referee James Doleman very demanding around scrum and breakdown and slowing the game down in the pursuit of accuracy over speed, Italy’s snap and drive on scrum engagement was negated to a slow shove, thus preventing them getting the expected edge in an area of the set-piece that they dominated France in last weekend.

In carry and especially in the first half, they lacked the depth of run onto the ball, contained by the Willis-led England defence, leaving their big gainline runners isolated and without momentum. In the second half, Italy’s two outstanding backs, Brex and Capuozzo tried manfully to get their side back into the game and eventually a brilliant oblique run from Brex set up the field position from where Alessandro Fusco steamed over.

But it was all too little too much; a combination of tired legs, poor exit strategy and a failure to get any momentum into carry was in stark contrast to last weekend – they’ll emerge better for this experience, but make no mistake, Kieran Crowley and Michele Lamaro will be bitterly disappointed at the performance they produced.

England works-ons

Borthwick’s attention to detail will take time to turn this side around but on Sunday we saw the green shoots of good practice and squad time together. The way Farrell managed the game and got his playing assets into effective positions was laudable; little things started to go right like Malins’ influence at restarts or Itoje’s lineout calling. It was like watching a ‘work in progress’ come together and there’s a lot of good things to take out.

However, at 13 Henry Slade’s inaccuracy was again a frustration, although one of his more wayward passes almost resulted in a try for Jack van Poortvliet as the Slade pass went to ground and Malins stood the entire Italian defence up before passing back to Van Poortvliet to scoot over; however Lawrence was deemed to have impeded an Italian defender and the score was ruled out. Nevertheless, Slade blew hot and cold and he’ll need to improve.

England will be delighted at the showing of their bench with Henry Arundell and Alex Mitchell combining at the end to score a lovely try in the corner. Dan Cole, Ben Earl and Nick Isiekwe all contributed and the final score was a result of the efforts of all 23 English players.

For Borthwick, it’s clear a plan is emerging and the next hurdle, Wales at Cardiff, will tell us everything of the promise of progress we saw on Sunday.

READ MORE: Six Nations: Jack Willis-inspired England claim bonus-point win over Italy