England enjoy seven-try cruise in Rome but Youngs to miss Wales clash with knee injury

England’s quest for an unprecedented hat-trick of Sixnationstitleswaslaunched by a 46-15 victory over Italy yesterday afternoon that produced a late flurry of tries.

The champions exploded out of the blocks by crossing twice through Anthony Watson inside the opening ten minutes, but the overwhelming win their early onslaught appeared to signpost only materialised in the closing stages.

In the end, Italy’s whitewash was breached seven times in the bonus-point visit to the Stadio Olimpico, but England were made to work by a team that had nine starters with ten caps or fewer.

Eddie Jones had urged his players to set the tone for their campaign by putting the Azzurri to the sword and they responded, but there will be plenty to pick apart, not least the way they were exposed out wide when leaking two tries.

The victory came at a cost, too, as Ben Youngs was forced off in the ninth minute with what appeared to be a serious knee injury inflicted when the joint buckled awkwardly during a tackle.

The Leicester captain, pictured right, screamed in pain and was driven from the pitch by the medical cart, enabling Danny Care to make his 77th Test appearance and equal Matt Dawson’s record as England’s most capped scrumhalf.

Youngs’ distress points to a significant lay-off and having relied on just two players in the position for virtually his entire reign, Jones will finally have to summon a third option.

“Ben will have an examination tomorrow [Monday] so we’ll know more after that,” head coach Jones said afterwards. “He’s unlikely to be available for the Wales game. It looks like a ligament injury. It’s too early to make any sort of prediction but I’m always optimistic.”

The Youngs injury aside, Jones was satisfied enough with the day’s work. “That was massively positive, I was really pleased with the effort today,” he said. “Italy were