ITA 9-40 ENG: Don't be fooled by the scoreline!

Hmm,

This post is a little difficult to put together as it requires me to criticise a side that won by 31 points.

But it is necessary.

For those of you who did not watch the game on Sunday and think I have lost the plot then just hear me out. The scoreline was NOT a fair reflection of the game or England's performance.

Let's begin with the first half.

At half time the score ITA 9-11 ENG and how Italy weren't ahead I do not know.

Ford with a tidy finish against the Azzurri.

Something that has stood out for me in England's first two matches of this year's RBS 6 Nations has been the horrendous amount of penalties given away. Versus Scotland England conceded 12 which might not sound like too many but when I was watching the game it felt like England were constantly giving them away and it was the fault of England, not the work of Scotland. Against Italy it was 15 penalties conceded. 15! Again, most of these were due to poor England discipline and not Italy being exceptional. 


If Italy had the extra talent required and made most of those penalties, England would have been in real trouble.

The only reason England won this game was because of a handful of star performers, namely Jonathan Joseph who bagged a hat-trick and MOTM Ben Youngs who dictated play wonderfully, and Italy's legs running weak towards the end of the game.

JJ scoring 1 of his 3 tries.

After the Scotland game and in our review of that match we were quite pleased with Jones' first match in charge and saw promise, while understanding that fluidity was to come with time.

After that performance it is a little less promising.

England showed glimpses of world class play but our work at the breakdown was very poor.

Our scrummaging was, however, very good but our lineouts were usually OK with them not showing much consistency.

What England need is a much improved back-row, something we have discussed before, and much tighter discipline.

If you look at the bench mark of good rugby, the All Blacks, you see why England are not ready for world class teams to face them.

Something I adore about the All Blacks is how they have always stated that it's not just about how many points you score but how many you concede.

If England were playing the All Black, the Springboks, the Aussies or Ireland, France or Wales it would be a very different story.

Teams will be better at making the most of penalties than the Italians. Teams will be better at forcing penalties at the break down from England. Teams will not run out of steam at 60 mins, unlike the Italians.

The game against Ireland on the 27th will truly show whether these issues have been patched up or not.

Don't get me wrong, it was a good win. Just not as good as the scoreline showed.