Powered by five tries in the first 22 minutes, England romped to a 40-5 victory over Italy on Sunday to stay on course for a Six Nations Grand Slam.
Yet Clive Woodward's team virtually stopped attacking and spent much of the game at Twickenham on defense against a hardworking Italian lineup who halted the onslaught for 50 minutes and were unlucky not to score more than one try.
In a rare penalty-free game, Josh Lewsey scored two tries on his Six Nations debut and front row Steve Thompson, center Mike Tindall and wingers James Simpson-Daniel and Dan Luger all crossed the Italian line as England won for the third game in a row in the competition.
The lone Italian score came from 20-year-old fullback Mirco Bergamasco early in the second half by which time his team was already 33-0 behind.
``It's a very quiet dressing room which always sums up the performance with a lot of frustrations,'' Woodward said. ``But we were fantastic for 25 to 30 minutes and then, for reasons I have to go away and clearly think about, we just took our foot off the pedal.
``We couldn't get the ball off the Italians and they played very well. But we just got a bit sloppy.
``The positives outweigh the negatives but we need to up probably more than one of two gears if we're really going to move on this year to what we're trying to do.''
Already missing star kicker Diego Dominguez, Italy suffered another blow when Mauro Bergamasco, Mirco's older brother, was ruled out just minutes before the game with a thigh injury. Nicola Mazzucato took over on the wing.
England romped into a five-try, 33-0 lead inside the first 22 minutes before going another 50 without a single score.
The Italians were pulled apart by some textbook rugby in the second minute for fullback Lewsey to cross the line for his sixth try in England colors but debut score in the Six Nations.
After scrum half Matt Dawson was halted just short of the line, front row Thompson collected the ball from the ruck and charged over for the second in the 11th minute.
Two minutes later, Italy conceded possession in midfield and England sent the ball through five pairs of hands to the overlapping Simpson-Daniel for his first England try.
Then Lewsey darted through a gap in the Italian defense to sprint 40 meters, weaving past Mirco Bergamasco for his second try.
The fifth try came when Dawson broke from a scrum and passed outside to Simpson-Daniel. The winger slipped ball inside for Tindall to brush through some weak tackling for the score.
Jonny Wilkinson, who had converted the first four tries, pulled the difficult conversion attempt wide but England was in total control.
BOUNCE BACK: Curry scored 46 points in the Warriors’ victory over the Spurs, after ‘everybody stepped up’ following Tuesday’s blowout loss to Oklahoma City Nikola Jokic scoring 50 or more points had never been enough for the Denver Nuggets to win — until now. Jokic on Wednesday night tied the highest-scoring performance in the NBA this season with 55 points, as the Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Clippers 130-116 for their sixth straight victory. The Nuggets were 0-4 in his previous 50-point outbursts. “It’s a good feeling,” the three-time NBA Most Valuable Player said. He equaled Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 55 in a double-overtime game at the Indiana Pacers on Oct. 23. Jokic has been on a roll during Denver’s winning streak. He is the
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
The tri-nation Twenty20 international series featuring hosts Pakistan, as well as Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, is to be played entirely in Rawalpindi from Tuesday next week, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said yesterday, after this week’s suicide bombing in the capital, Islamabad. The change came after at least eight Sri Lankan players asked to leave over security fears following Tuesday’s bombing that killed 12 people and wounded 27. Their country’s cricket board issued a stern directive to the team to stay put or face consequences. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said the decision to stay was taken after “close consultations” with hosts Pakistan who
LIKE FINE WINE: Thirty-eight-year-old Djokovic won his 101st title of his career in Athens, becoming the oldest tournament winner since Ken Roswell, 44, in 1977 Elena Rybakina on Saturday clinched her biggest title since Wimbledon in 2022, defeating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6 (7/0) at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. The world No. 6 put on yet another serving masterclass and was at her returning best as she became the first Kazakh and the first player representing an Asian country to lift the WTA Finals singles trophy. Having gone 3-0 in round-robin play, Rybakina earned a record US$5.235 million and would finish the year ranked No. 5 in the world. “It’s been an incredible week, I honestly didn’t expect any result, and to go so far,
RSS