England compound Italy’s misery

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Ben Youngs and Owen Farrell inspired England to hard-fought 37-0 victory over Italy in their final World Cup warm-up game in Newcastle on Friday.

England will head out to Japan for the World Cup on a winning note. But coach Eddie Jones will be far from pleased with his team’s overall display.

If England’s 57-15 demolition of Ireland a fortnight ago enhanced their Webb Ellis credentials, this performance against the Azzurri served as an antithesis to that showing. England struggled to get any notable territorial dominance and lacked precision.

Other concerns for Jones will be the high turnover rate against England at the breakdown and the numerous linebreaks they conceded.

Fortunately for the hosts, Italy were unable to capitalise. In fact, the visitors never really posed any great threat to England despite a few sleek moves and strong runs into the 22. On the base of this performance alone, the Springboks won’t have too much trouble overcoming them during their Pool B clash at the World Cup on 4 October.

Youngs ignited England’s attack in the second half, while Farrell kept the scoreboard ticking over off the tee.

Youngs darted over for a try before expertly setting up outside centre Joe Marchant for his maiden international try. And when the scrumhalf was taken off, Farrell continued to marshall England’s attack as they went in search of a flattering scoreline.


And it all worked out with Ellis Genge and Anthony Watson crossing for late efforts to put some gloss on the performance.


England – Tries: Ben Youngs, Joe Marchant, Ellis Genge, Anthony Watson. Conversions: Owen Farrell (4). Penalties: Farrell (3)
Italy – (0).

England – 15 Anthony Watson, 14 Ruaridh McConnochie, 13 Joe Marchant, 12 Piers Francis, 11 Jonny May, 10 Owen Farrell (c), 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Mark Wilson, 6 Tom Curry, 5 Courtney Lawes, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Jamie George, 1 Joe Marler.
Subs: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Kyle Sinckler 19 Charlie Ewels, 20 Matt Kvesic, 21 Willi Heinz, 22 George Ford, 23 Joe Cokanasiga.

Italy – 15 Jayden Hayward, 14 Mattia Bellini, 13 Giulio Bisegni, 12 Tommaso Benvenuti, 11 Edoardo Padovani, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Callum Braley, 8 Jimmy Tuivaiti, 7 Braam Steyn, 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Dean Budd (c), 4 David Sisi, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Oliviero Fabiani, 1 Nicola Quaglio.
Subs: 16 Federico Zani, 17 Andrea Lovotti, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 Federico Ruzza, 20 Alessandro Zanni, 21 Maxime Mbanda, 22 Guglielmo Palazzani, 23 Tommaso Allan.

Photo: England Rugby

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Mariette Adams