RBS SIX NATIONS - 2007

England vs. Italy – Match Preview

by Ed Budge

Nick Easter will make his England debut this Saturday, as Brian Ashton’s side line up against Italy at Twickenham in a game which the head coach will hope to see his rejuvenated outfit build on an encouraging start to their VI Nations campaign after last weekend’s victory over Scotland .

Easter replaces Joe Worsley on the blindside of the scrum; the Wasps man overlooked with a view to protecting his injured neck for the crucial clash with Ireland in the third round. Elsewhere, Iain Balshaw waltzes, unchecked, back into the number 15 jersey as his club colleague Olly Morgan retreats back to the Saxons with Shaun Perry and Peter Richards making a similar trade-off in an otherwise unaltered squad.

Chances are we will see a largely unaltered game against the Azzuri – who welcome Alessandro Troncon back into the side at scrum-half to win a record 92^nd cap for his country – as England look to bed in the “no bull****” style of rugby that Ashton is trying to forge. Power will, once again, be the name of the game; the ball run close and run straight, just as against Scotland . While Italy ’s pack is undoubtedly the team’s prize asset, it is never the same away from home and never as effective on the back foot as it is on the front. England will be right to reprise their game plan from a week ago and attack their visitors at source.

Ashton described Italy ’s heavy defeat to France on the opening weekend as “the worst possible result” from an English perspective, but to fear the wounded animal would be no more than a distraction. A team whose potential and continued improvement always seems to take the form of ‘something in the air’ rather than ‘something on the scoreboard’ should not be allowed to come to Twickenham with just the fire in their bellies driving the pace of the game. England did a marvellously efficient job against the Scots showing greater structure and fewer mistakes than we have come to expect of late (my cap is here doffed to John Wells for helping the pack approach the sum of its parts) and the same will do again.

However, it would be nice to see a little extra from England , a little improvement. An 80-minute pummelling is all well and good, but there was a lack of invention (still) to last Saturday’s encounter. My earliest memories of watching England religiously come from the VI nations tournaments of 2001 and 2002, where most games would consist of a Johnson led pack grinding his foes into the dirt for a solid hour before, weary from the beating and intimidated by the awesome presence of the Red Rose Army, opposition defences capitulated before my eyes as Greenwood, Robinson et al were given handed the reins for a quarter-hour Blitzkrieg.

There are issues of skill at stake, predominantly a reluctance to run from genuine depth amongst the English backs, followed closely by minor deficiencies in the quality of their passing, but it is mainly a matter of game management. The experience of Jonny Wilkinson should prove invaluable in this regard, as it was he who took charge of these Woodward era torture sessions, and knew just when to initiate the killing blow. I hope, though, that Ashton has the sense to bring Mathew Tait off the bench, unlike last week, as his pace will be needed; that particular commodity being solely the property of Harry Ellis last week.

England should beat Italy , and beat them comfortably. The Bergamascos, Bortolamis and Castrogiovannis of this World can cause their problems, but the essential ingredient in England ’s repulsion of the Roman hordes should be persistence. Sticking to their game plan and picking up points wherever possible should be enough to take a victory by 20 points or so, and build momentum towards Croke Park and towards Ireland.

England Balshaw; Lewsey, Tindall, Farrell, Robinson; Wilkinson, Ellis; Freshwater, Chuter, Vickery (Captain), Deacon, Grewcock, Easter, Lund , Corry.
Replacements: Mears, White, Palmer, Rees, Perry, Flood, Tait.

Italy

Forwards: M Bortolami (Gloucester), M Castrogiovanni (Leicester), S Dellape (Biarritz), C Festuccia (GRAN Parma), M Bergamasco (Stade Francais), S Parisse (S Francais), S Perugini (Toulouse), V Bernabo (Calvisano), M Zaffiri (Calvisano), A Zanni (Calvisano), F Ongaro (Saracens), A Lo Cicero (L'Aquila), J Sole (Viadana), C Nieto (Gloucester).

Backs: G Canale (Clermont-Auvergne), A Scanavacca (Calvisano), P Griffen (Calvisano), M Bergamasco (Stade Francais), R Pez (Bayonne), K Robertson (Viadana), A Masi (Biarritz), D Dallan (Stade Francais), R De Marigny (Calvisano), A Troncon (Clermont-Auvergne).

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