England keep Slam dream alive

England kept their hopes of back-to-back Grand Slams alive with a 36-15 victory over Italy at Twickenham on Sunday, but only after being given a huge scare by the game Azzurri.

In a week where Italy’s place in the Six Nations had been repeatedly called into question following their 63-10 thrashing by Ireland last time out, they defied all pre-match predictions to lead 10-5 at half-time.

And even when England recovered to go 17-10 up early in the second half, Italy centre Michele Campagnaro’s try on the hour mark cut the hosts’ advantage to 17-15.

England recorded their 23rd victory in as many Tests against Italy, but only after two late tries from replacement back Jack Nowell and one from centre Ben Te’o sealed the victory.

The win was also England’s 17th in a row — just one shy of New Zealand’s all-time record for a tier-one nation of 18 successive Test victories.

Italy kept the game scoreless until the 24th minute when England prop Dan Cole was driven over for an unconverted try.

But Tommaso Allan, who had missed two earlier penalty attempts, cut the deficit with a well-taken drop-goal.

England, who had been considerable odds-on favourites at 1/150 with some bookmakers before kick-off, astonishingly found themselves behind on the stroke of half-time.

But two tries in three minutes early in the second half from Danny Care and Elliot Daly, the latter converted by Owen Farrell, saw England into a 17-10 lead. England regained the initiative with two tries in a matter of minutes at the start of the second half.