Joseph hat-trick caps England’s 40-9 rout of Italy

ROME: A hat-trick of second-half tries from Bath centre Jonathan Joseph capped a dominant performance from England as the World Cup flops kept their Six Nations Grand Slam on track with a 40-9 dismantling of Italy on Sunday.

England, who failed to make it out of the group stages of last autumn’s rugby showpiece on home soil, began their Six Nations campaign with a battling 15-9 win over Scotland in Edinburgh last week.

It prompted new England coach Eddie Jones to demand a ‘smacking’ of the tournament’s perennial underachievers.

Yet England were unconvincing before the interval, although George Ford’s 29th minute try gave the visitors an 11-9 lead as Carlo Canna hit three penalties for the hosts.

Indeed, it took until midway through the second period, when Italy’s errors began piling up, and later in the game, when Italy completely collapsed, for England to pile on the points.

But for Jones, that had been all part of the plan: “We wanted to be two (wins) from two. In the second half we did some good things... and I was pleased by the way we put them away.

“We could have easily scored 60 points out there. I thought we were quite brutal in the second half, we came in off the line and really hurt the Italians in the end.

“We expected to score a lot of points in the last 20 minutes and that’s the way it turned out.”

Fresh from an inspirational 2321 defeat to France in Paris, Italy proved resilient in a battling firsthalf in which they did well to make up for the loss of three players due to injury, Gonzalo Garcia and Alessandro Zanni following Marco Fuser in limping off prematurely.

But Joseph’s opening try on 52 minutes took the wind out of Italy’s sails, said captain Sergio Parisse.

“The turning point was the interception try. It changed the game for us from a mental point of view,” said Parisse.

“We started losing focus in key set pieces afterwards. Last week we believed in our chances right till the end but today we were competitive for the first 50 minutes.

“We made a lot of errors and we need to learn from these. It’s hard for everyone in the team including management, but we have to keep on working hard.”

Jones had kept six forwards on his replacements bench with the plan of a second-half onslaught.

It duly came, but was in large part thanks to a near general collapse of Italy’s defensive game.

England were lucky to avoid a yellow card when James Hasekll tackled Luke McLean as the full back leapt to catch the ball in midair.

Although replays suggested New Zealand referee Glen Jackson got it wrong, Parisse refused to blame him for Italy’s collapse: “When you concede 40 points and lose a game in this way you can’t start complaining about decisions made by the referee.

“Of course, a tackle in mid-air merits a yellow card. But it’s not my style to criticise the referees.”

Jones immediately replaced Youngs with Danny Care, and moments later Canna missed a crucial chance for a one-point lead by hitting his penalty wide.

Italy were still holding their own but the game turned on Leonardo Sarto’s ambitious pass to Luke McLean. With Joseph lurking, it was naive and the England centre intercepted to run in for the try.

Jones replaced Haskell with Maro Itoje for his England debut, and the fresh legs paid dividends.

Joseph had his second try when he ran on to Care’s grubber, with Farrell’s conversion taking the score to 25-9.

Amid reports Joseph is fighting for his England place, Jones was quick to point out: “He wasn’t under pressure for his spot. You guys had him under pressure.