Borthwick warns England stars to "learn fast" after Italy Six Nations scare
England boss Steve Borthwick admitted his side were not at the races as they limped past Italy in Rome – but it could have been much worse.
This was the closest Italy have come to England and it could have been a disaster for Borthwick’s side who were hanging on at the end. They have never lost to Italy in 31 games but this was too close to comfort for England and their 30,000-plus travelling fans who flocked to the Italian capital.
A mad last few minutes saw Elliot Daly sinbinned for a trip and Italian winger Montanna Ioane being given the freedom of Rome by the English defence who waved hm through. That was the Italians third score, earning them a bonus point, and if the game had any time left you would have fancied them finishing England off.
But Borthwick’s men got over the line just but the head coach insisted there is more to come – and this evidence there needs to be. Borthwick said: “There are plenty of areas that need to be better.
"There are certainly positives to pull out of it, but it looked clunky in bits...It looked like a team which only had three training sessions together. You are always looking for change. There are certainly things to be improved and we got exposed by an Italian team that moves the ball well, but we will improve on that next week. We will learn fast from today.
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“You’ve got to remember that this Italy side, in this opening fixture last year, almost beat France. There were very few points in it, and I think many people afterwards thought they should have beaten France. They very nearly beat Scotland. They beat Australia two years ago. We were 27-17 up at 80 minutes, sat on the opposition goal-line. We’re disappointed that they scored that last try, but 27-17 would have been a good result.”
Northampton’s Tommy Freeman was one of the few bright lights, alongside Ethan Roots, Alex Mitchell and Maro Itoje, and showed how much he has come on since being hooked at half-time by Eddie Jones in 2022. And the wing vowed the side would show more against Wales at Twickenham next weekend.
He said: “The last game for me was South Africa which I put to bed pretty quickly. we want to win this competition. We want to be the champions of Europe. Next week is back at home, in front of English fans. We want to put on a show for them, an England performance - something they can remember, and there's no better team to do that against than Wales.
Alex Mitchell scored England's second try to put them ahead (Getty Images)Italy galloped to a 10-0 lead, and were 17-14, up at the break but despite being just three points behind England looked miles second best. The defence, now coached by Felix Jones, who won two World Cups with South Africa, went absent without leave twice to concede tries for Italian scrum-half Alessandro Garbisi and ex-Harlequins full-back Tommy Allan.
Daly provided a good finish when Northampton’s Tommy Freeman showed the value of coming off his wing to break through the midfield to set up the Saracen. But Eddie Jones, the former England boss who was in the stands, must have been sighing with relief he was not in charge here.
Ford’s kicking had kept England in touch and scrum-half Mitchell put them in front when he dummied the Italians, nosed his way through a gap and took two defenders over the line with him. Ford’s conversion made it 21-17 with 45 minutes on the clock but England had a huge let-off when Allan missed a penalty he could have thrown over.
Ford booted another one just before he was hauled off in favour of new boy Fin Smith then Daly was yellow-carded for his trip on Italian centre Tommasso Menoncello. England held on but this was definitely nothing for genuine title contenders to worry about. This English team don’t look like they would trouble the top sides in Europe.
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