England vs Italy - as it happened: Eddie Jone's men find their rhythm to see off the Azzurri
Re-live all the action from the Six Nations clash at Twickenham
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Your support makes all the difference.England made hard work of their third Six Nations match of the season as they fought to a 36-15 victory at Twickenham against Italy in controversial circumstances, having trailed at half-time. Re-live the match here.
- England beat Italy 36-15
- Italy led 10-5 at half-time after deploying a controversial defensive tactic
- Italians negated offside rule by not committing to the ruck
- England score six tries five five coming after the break
- Cole, Care, Daly, Te'o and two tries from Nowell
- Italy's reply came through Venditti and Campagnaro
- Teams
- England: M Brown; J May, B Te'o, O Farrell, E Daly; G Ford), D Care; J Marler, D Hartley, D Cole, J Launchbury, C Lawes, M Itoje, J Haskell, N Hughes.
- Replacements: J George, M Vunipola, K Sinckler, T Wood, J Clifford, B Youngs, H Slade, J Nowell.
- Italy: E Padovani; G Bisegni, M Campagnaro, L McLean, G Venditti; T Allan, E Gori; A Lovotti, L Ghiraldini, L Cittadini, M Fuser, A van Schalkwyk, A Steyn, S Favaro, S Parisse.
- Replacements: O Gega, M Rizzo, P Ceccarelli, G Biagi, M Mbanda, G Bronzini, C Canna, T Benvenuti.
Follow the live action below...
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Preview...
England are looking for a 17th consecutive victory when they welcome Italy to Twickenham Stadium on Sunday afternoon, with Eddie Jones’s side the one unbeaten team left in the championship.
England have beaten France and Wales over the opening two rounds, but have needed late fightbacks in both matches to ensure Jones’s unbeaten run remains intact. He makes four changes, three of which come in the back line as Danny Care replaces Ben Youngs at scrum-half, Ben Te’o starts at outside centre in place of Jonathan Joseph and Jack Nowell drops out of the side to accommodate Jonny May.
The only other change sees James Haskell replace Jack Clifford at openside flanker, with the Harlequins back-row joining Youngs and Nowell among the replacements.
Italy also make four changes, the biggest one coming at fly-half as Tommasso Allan replaces Carlo Canna. Exeter centre Michele Campagnaro comes in at 13, with Giulio Bisegni starting on the wing, while the other change comes on the blindside as Braam Steyn starts at flanker in place of Maxime Mbanda.
Here’s everything you need to know about the match.
What time does it start...
England vs Italy kicks off at 15:00 GMT at Twickenham.
Where can I watch it...
The match will be shown live on ITV from 14:00. You can also follow the match with The Independent’s live blog here.
It’s a big game for...
Danny Care: The scrum-half comes into the side knowing that the No 9 shirt is up for grabs if he can produce a performance to impress Eddie Jones. While Ben Youngs hasn’t done a lot wrong in the opening two fixtures, Care has helped swing the game in England’s favour when introduced from the bench, and Jones has tasked him with delivering that impact from the start of the match in order to hit Italy with a knockout blow early.
Key player...
Sergio Parisse: Italy’s level of performance will be set by their influential captain Sergio Parisse. When the No 8 performs at the top of his game, the rest of the team ups their performance and that’s when Italy can produce a shock, especially when they have been written off by just about everyone not in an Italian shirt.
Past three meetings...
Italy 9 England 40, Six Nations, February 2015.
England 47 Italy 17, Six Nations, February 2014.
Italy 11 England 52, Six Nations, March 2013.
Form:
England: WWWWWW
Italy: LLLWLW
Odds...
England to win: 1/100
Italy to win: 50/1
Draw: 100/1.
Good afternoon and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of England vs Wales in the final Six Nations match of the weekend, where the hosts are looking to make it three wins from three and the visitors hoping to put their first points of the championship on the board.
With kick-off still about an hour and 50 minutes away, we've got plenty of time to build-up to the encounter, as well as dissect yesterday's matches that saw both Scotland and Ireland claim their second victories of the tournament.
Owen Farrell will lead England out today as he collects his 50th cap for his country at the tender age of 25 years old. Here, we look at how he's matured over the last 11 years to develop into England's general-in-chief.
Life is pretty rosy right now for Eddie Jones, but for his opponent today, Conor O'Shea, it doesn't get much more difficult. In the build-up to today's game, Jones has called on World Rugby and the other Tier 1 nations to do more to help the struggling Italians.
How do you make on of the fastest players in the England camp go even quicker? You make him have a shave - at least that's what Eddie Jones told Jonny May this week.
Let's take a moment to look back at yesterday's matches. First up, perennial Six Nations underachievers Scotland finally showed they are a unit to be reckoned with, as they added the scalp of Wales to their earlier victory over Ireland with a brilliant 29-13 win over Rob Howley's side that ends their faint title hopes. The win means Scotland have scored more then 25 points in three consecutive home games for the first time, and they now head to Twickenham for the Calcutta Cup clash with England filled with confidence.
Re-live the match here:
Some early team news to bring you on the Italian front, as hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini has been ruled out on the morning of the match, meaning that Ornel Gega comes into the starting XV and Tommaso D'Aprice comes onto the bench.
With the change taken into account, here's today's confirmed teams for you:
England: M Brown; J May, B Te'o, O Farrell, E Daly; G Ford), D Care; J Marler, D Hartley, D Cole, J Launchbury, C Lawes, M Itoje, J Haskell, N Hughes.
Replacements: J George, M Vunipola, K Sinckler, T Wood, J Clifford, B Youngs, H Slade, J Nowell.
Italy: E Padovani; G Bisegni, M Campagnaro, L McLean, G Venditti; T Allan, E Gori; A Lovotti, O gega, L Cittadini, M Fuser, A van Schalkwyk, A Steyn, S Favaro, S Parisse.
Replacements: T D’Aprice, M Rizzo, P Ceccarelli, G Biagi, M Mbanda, G Bronzini, C Canna, T Benvenuti.
In the day's second match, Conor Murray and Jonathan Sexton turned in a half-back masterclass to secure Ireland a 19-9 win over France that keeps them in the Six Nations title race.
Re-live the match here:
We're set-up in the stands at Twickenham, and I can confirm that the early morning sunshine was been replaced by grey clouds looming overhead and a rather chilly breeze swirling around the stadium. It might make for uncomfortable typing for myself later on if it gets any colder, but more importantly it may give the kickers a few issues, as well as the full-backs claiming the high ball. We saw at Dublin yesterday how tricky a strong wind and heavy rain can make catching the ball, with France's Scott Spedding really struggling.
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