Tuilagi ends five-year Test try drought as England hammer Italy
TWICKENHAM, Un i t ed Kingdom: Manu Tuilagi scored his first Test tries in five years as England thrashed Italy 57-14 at Twickenham on Saturday to maintain their Six Nations title hopes.
The rampaging centre, whose career has been blighted by injuries, crossed twice as England ran in eight tries in total against perennial strugglers Italy, for whom this was a 21st successive defeat in the Six Nations.
England will, however, need Grand Slam-chasing Wales to slipup against Ireland next weekend before they themselves kick- off against Scotland – beaten 18-11 by Wales at Murrayfield earlier on Saturday – if they are to still have a chance of claiming the Championship.
The match was over as a contest before half- time, with Tuilagi scoring one of England’s four tries as they secured a bonus point in just the 32nd minute.
Before the match, Tuilagi had said one job for England’s inside backs was to give recalled wing Joe Cokanasiga the ball.
They d id jus t that wi th Cokanasiga, making 108 metres, five clean breaks and two offloads in a man- of-the-match display as England bounced back from a 21-13 defeat by Wales in style.
“I just wanted to take this opportunity with both hands,” said Cokanasiga.
England coach Eddie Jones added: “We used the whole 23 today, we could have used the fi nishers ( replacements) better against Wales, and that was my fault, but they all made a contribution today.”
Jones had deliberately selected a hugely powerful backline, pairing Ben Te’o and Tuilagi in midfield as well as recalling Cokanasiga.
Italy, to their credit, were briefly level at 7-7 thanks to flyhalf Tommaso Allan converting his own try.
But there was a reason the Azzurri, who’ve now lost all 25 of their Tests against England, were 60/1 outsiders and from then on it was largely one-way traffic.
“It was difficult,” Italy coach Conor O’Shea told the BBC. “That was an incredibly powerful England performance.”
England, dominating territory from the start, opened the scoring in the eighth minute when hooker Jamie George was driven over from a close-range line- out.
Italy then stunned a capacity Twickenham crowd of over 82,000 with a well- worked score that saw Allan, breaking through a tackle by England scrum-half Ben Youngs on the blind side for a try he converted.
Minutes later, however, England were 14- 7 ahead after full- back Elliot Daly sent Jonny May in for the wing’s fi fth try in four Tests. — AFP