«ENGLAND’S LATE BLITZ SEES OFF ITALY
JAMES BOND toasted England’s players in their changing room last night after Sam Simmonds had run amok at the Olympic Stadium to ignite his team’s ‘three-peat’ crusade.
Actor Daniel Craig joined the celebrations after a convincing, bonus-point victory launched the holders’ Six Nations campaign in fine style in Rome.
Eddie Jones has urged his men to make history by claiming their third successive title and this seven-try show of force gave substance to those ambitions.
It was a result which sets the scene for a potentially classic England-Wales showdown at Twickenham on Saturday.
Yet, for an hour, Conor O’Shea’s Italy side fought the good fight. They scored two fine tries but could not withstand the relentless English aggression.
Most of all, they could not stop Simmonds. The 23-year-old had been given the most daunting task on his championship debut: trying to fill the void left by Billy Vunipola’s injury.
His performance figures were staggering. He was the joint-top English ball-carrier, with 14. He made 80 metres, more than any of his team-mates, including three clean breaks, and beat six defenders along the way. His 23 tackles were seven more than any other England player made. As if all that wasn’t enough, he scored two tries and set up the last one for club-mate Jack Nowell, with a sublime no-look pass.
‘He’s a good, young lad with a great set of skills,’ said Jones. ‘He’s a different sort of number eight. He’s fast and elusive. He’s different from Billy.’
While Simmonds cannot blast holes in defences with the force of his running, in the way Vunipola so often can, he instead unsettles rivals with pace and footwork and an eye for a gap.
In the 53rd minute, he burst away from a ruck and scorched past the last covering defenders to claim his first Test try before adding No 2 five minutes from time, when another burst of speed proved decisive. England needed those interventions too — just as they needed all the tackles Simmonds made while Italy were going through long spells of possession and territorial advantage.
His first try was the one which effectively put the contest beyond Italy’s reach, even though they refused to go quietly, when Mattia Bellini struck at the other end just before the hour.
That meant both Italian wingers crossed the line, as Tommaso Benvenuti had scored midway through the first half, at the end of
23 That was the number of tackles made by Sam Simmonds on his impressive Six Nations debut. No player made more tackles, metres or clean breaks than the No 8
a sweeping raid from deep.
While hard graft up front by the likes of Mako Vunipola, Chris Robshaw and Maro Itoje made it all possible, the other striking feature of this victory was the fluency of the creative hub in the back line; the 10-12 alliance of George Ford and Owen Farrell.
Ford did for England what Johnny Sexton does for Ireland — running behind his inside centre to take a return pass and unleash the runners further out.
Jonny May and Anthony Watson took full advantage of this deadly supply line. Watson scored twice in the right corner in the first half, with May setting him up on both occasions, after Ford and Farrell had made it all possible.
Midway through the first half, Farrell even scored a try of his own after an attack featuring all of the front-rowers: Mako Vunipola, Dylan Hartley and Dan Cole.
By the break, England only had a sevenpoint lead but there was always a sense that they would find another gear late on. The score was 27-15 with 12 minutes left when Ford went over for a try which owed much to his understanding with his close friend alongside. His pass picked out Farrell at full throttle and he sent the ball back the other way for the fly-half to strike.
Jones was buoyant after the game, saying: ‘That was massively positive. Italy were always going to be difficult to play. We had to hang in there.
‘Our scrum and line-out were first class. I don’t think we’ve scrummed as well as that in the time I’ve been in charge of England. We were completely dominant. That’s English rugby.’
England face a rampant Wales at Twickenham next Saturday — and Jones cannot wait.
‘The tournament is only going to get better and we go again next week at Twickenham. There will be 82,000 people. They’ll be pumped and we’ll be pumped to play in front of them.’