Frustrated Red Rose pushing for big finish
KIERAN Wilkinson urged his England team-mates to finish a “frustrating” Six Nations campaign in style despite Ireland already being crowned champions.
The fly-half produced a sparkling performance his namesake Jonny would have enjoyed as Steve Bates’ men swept aside the Italians on a wet and windy night at Goldington Road.
England face Scotland at Franklin’s Gardens on Friday and Wilkinson knows it is important to build winning momentum with the Junior World Cup in Argentina just three months away.
Wilkinson, who grabbed a superb solo try in the victory at the home of Bedford, admitted: “It has been frustrating; we showed here how well we can play but lost out to Wales right at the end last week and know we let it slip.
“We wanted to bounce back after losing that and we showed the confidence we have in the team. We had a strategy to play smart and in the right areas. The crowd were great and pushed us on in the second half.
“We have to take the positives out of each game and look forward to trying to finish the tournament on a high against Scotland. That will be another tough, physical game but it is important we get the win.”
Wilkinson, 19, has already been blooded in the Sale Sharks side this season with Steve Diamond seeing an exciting future ahead for the Blackpool lad.
Wilkinson helped carve out a slender 12-10 half-time lead with intelligent kicking and skilful handling and running. His fine grubber kick put Gloucester centre Tom Seabrook through for the first try only to see Italy reply with two of their own from centre Frederico Mori and then full-back Michele Peruzzo. Both tries created by impressive Italy No10 Paolo Garbisi.
Wilkinson responded with a special score of his own. When the Italians lost control of the ball just inside their own half, the England No.10 decided to go it on his own and applied the accelerator. He swept aside one tackler, burst through a gap and passed last man Garbisi to race over for a stunning individual try.
Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli had to go off for stitches and a head injury assessment after an accidental line-out collision with No.8 Mirco Finotto. He was able to return to the action after 13 minutes on the side.
Any fears of an upset were soon quashed early in the second-half when, after a Josh Hodge penalty, Yorkshire Carnegie scrum-half Ollie Fox darted around the side of a ruck for the third try.
Newcastle’s Hodge kicked a penalty and Northampton wing Ollie Sleightholme flew in for another try with replacement fly-half Manu Vunipola completing the scoring with a penalty.
Despite losing the title to Ireland, head coach Steve Bates insisted: “The players have made huge progress and it will be really nice to see them show the extent of their progress next week against Scotland where we will be looking to build a bit more continuity in the game.”