Italy 19 England 23

Italy were anything but drowning under a sea of white this weekend at The Faminio Stadium in Rome. It is the closest loss that Italy have ever had against England and had the match been 10 minutes longer the score line may have looked very different. 75% possession and territory to Italy in the second half. Ooops England!

I wonder how the England team felt when, although they were the match winners, the 'man of the match' award went to Italy's Sergio Parisse (gorgeous gallery pic below). Surely that gave them a 'slap in the face' of a message. Brian Moore in the commentary box was on the verge of a permanent hissy fit throughout the second half and I thought he was going to explode when Cipriani's kick away was charged down and Picone scored the last try of the match.

Italy really deserved to win the match, especially in the second half. There was no creativity from England at all - it just isn't working is it Brian. We have some amazing players, such as Wilkinson, Lipman, Haskell, Easter - Jamie Noon and Toby Flood played well individually, but the team performance was poor at best, and a carbon copy almost to the way play went last week. Can England only cope with 40 minute matches.

There were good parts of the atch though let us not forget - and England did come out as overall winners. Sackey's try early on was a joy to watch, set up beautifully from Jonny by one of those 'pop out the back' passes. Jonny flattened the voices of his own personal critics by creating 11 out of the 23 English points. He has now scored over 1000 points for his country. Not bad when you are only 28!

Italy: Bortolussi; Robertson, Canale, Mirco Bergamasco, Galon; Masi, Travagli; Lo Cicero, Ghiraldini, Castrogiovanni, Dellape, Del Fava, Sole, Mauro Bergamasco, Parisse (captain).
Replacements: Festuccia, Perugini, Nieto, Zanni, Picone, Marcato, Sgarbi.

England: Balshaw; Sackey, Noon, Flood, Vainikolo; Wilkinson, Gomarsall; Payne, Regan, Stevens, Shaw, Borthwick (captain), Haskell, Lipman, Easter.
Replacements: Mears, Hobson, Kay, Narraway, Wigglesworth, Cipriani,Tait.


France put Ireland in their place this weekend with a 26 - 21 win in Paris despite a late Ireland come back. The brand new 'team and coach' look seems to be working!!!

Wales soundly spanked Scotland at the Milliennium Stadium 30 - 15, so after week two, the French and Welsh are standing out proudly and on track for a grand slam. Will they keep this hope alive? France face England in Paris in two weeks time and Wales play Italy in Cardiff. Who knows what will happen......