England vs Italy - as it happened: Eddie Jone's men find their rhythm to see off the Azzurri
England made hard work of their third Six Nations match of the season as they fought to a 36-15 victory at Twickenham against Italy in controversial circumstances, having trailed at half-time. Re-live the match here.
England beat Italy 36-15
Italy led 10-5 at half-time after deploying a controversial defensive tactic
Italians negated offside rule by not committing to the ruck
England score six tries five five coming after the break
Cole, Care, Daly, Te'o and two tries from Nowell
Italy's reply came through Venditti and Campagnaro
Teams
England: M Brown; J May, B Te'o, O Farrell, E Daly; G Ford), D Care; J Marler, D Hartley, D Cole, J Launchbury, C Lawes, M Itoje, J Haskell, N Hughes.
Replacements: J George, M Vunipola, K Sinckler, T Wood, J Clifford, B Youngs, H Slade, J Nowell.
Italy: E Padovani; G Bisegni, M Campagnaro, L McLean, G Venditti; T Allan, E Gori; A Lovotti, L Ghiraldini, L Cittadini, M Fuser, A van Schalkwyk, A Steyn, S Favaro, S Parisse.
Replacements: O Gega, M Rizzo, P Ceccarelli, G Biagi, M Mbanda, G Bronzini, C Canna, T Benvenuti.
Follow the live action below...
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Preview...
England are looking for a 17th consecutive victory when they welcome Italy to Twickenham Stadium on Sunday afternoon, with Eddie Jones’s side the one unbeaten team left in the championship.
England have beaten France and Wales over the opening two rounds, but have needed late fightbacks in both matches to ensure Jones’s unbeaten run remains intact. He makes four changes, three of which come in the back line as Danny Care replaces Ben Youngs at scrum-half, Ben Te’o starts at outside centre in place of Jonathan Joseph and Jack Nowell drops out of the side to accommodate Jonny May.
The only other change sees James Haskell replace Jack Clifford at openside flanker, with the Harlequins back-row joining Youngs and Nowell among the replacements.
Italy also make four changes, the biggest one coming at fly-half as Tommasso Allan replaces Carlo Canna. Exeter centre Michele Campagnaro comes in at 13, with Giulio Bisegni starting on the wing, while the other change comes on the blindside as Braam Steyn starts at flanker in place of Maxime Mbanda.
Here’s everything you need to know about the match.
What time does it start...
England vs Italy kicks off at 15:00 GMT at Twickenham.
Where can I watch it...
The match will be shown live on ITV from 14:00. You can also follow the match with The Independent’s live blog here.
It’s a big game for...
Danny Care: The scrum-half comes into the side knowing that the No 9 shirt is up for grabs if he can produce a performance to impress Eddie Jones. While Ben Youngs hasn’t done a lot wrong in the opening two fixtures, Care has helped swing the game in England’s favour when introduced from the bench, and Jones has tasked him with delivering that impact from the start of the match in order to hit Italy with a knockout blow early.
Key player...
Sergio Parisse: Italy’s level of performance will be set by their influential captain Sergio Parisse. When the No 8 performs at the top of his game, the rest of the team ups their performance and that’s when Italy can produce a shock, especially when they have been written off by just about everyone not in an Italian shirt.
Past three meetings...
Italy 9 England 40, Six Nations, February 2015.
England 47 Italy 17, Six Nations, February 2014.
Italy 11 England 52, Six Nations, March 2013.
Form:
England: WWWWWW
Italy: LLLWLW
Odds...
England to win: 1/100
Italy to win: 50/1
Draw: 100/1.
