Mixed emotions for England as they returned to winning ways with a convincing 41-18 victory over Italy in the Six Nations at Twickenham thanks to a star performance by Anthony Watson.
Unfortunately, it was a heart-breaking afternoon for Jack Willis who made his Six Nations debut only to end up getting stretchered off.
It started well for Willis who scored a try within minutes of coming onto the pitch. In the 60th minute after Dan Robson, the replacement scrum half, made a beautiful twisting run from a tap-and-go penalty making it to the 5 metre lines. From there the forwards got into their stride trying to break down the resilient Italian defence. Willis managed to make the breakthrough making it 32-11.
Unfortunately, Willis went into a ruck in the 65th and was crocodile rolled away from it. The action caused his knee to pop – a sickening scream followed from the flanker and he was stretchered off a few minutes later. A horrible end to his game and what could be a career ending injury for a young man who has such a bright future in the sport.
On the whole England won convincingly with their biggest score since beating the USA in the World Cup group stages in 2019.
It would be easy to get carried away with the score line but there is still huge room for improvement in the England camp – especially with discipline.
England conceded 12 penalties during the game and should consider themselves lucky not to have received at least one yellow card.
Italy looked very strong in places, especially in the first-half scoring the first try of the game in the third minute. Monty Ioane scored in the corner after an Italian lineout led to an overlap at the other side of the pitch.
More English joy came from Jonny Hill who scored his first Six Nations try in the 16th minute. It came from a quick kick over the top from George Ford and the collection from Elliot Daly caused the Italians to be offside.
England won the penalty and chose to go quickly, using the forwards to bash through the defence and with Hill getting to the line for the try.
The England wingers were on their usual top form.
Anthony Watson scored twice and Jonny May got a fantastic try in the 40th minute. Jumping over the tackle to make sure he wasn’t in touch in the corner.
Watson got tries in the first and the second-half and constantly caused problems for the Italians.
Looking forward to the next round. Italy host Ireland in a game they could pull-off a surprise after Ireland’s poor start, although it will be an extreme challenge for them. Italy haven’t won a game in the Six Nations for 6 years.
England travel to an undefeated but struggling Welsh side in a game they need to win if they have any hope of winning the championship.
By Joe Hayhurst
