England v Italy RBS Six Nations 2011 -Match Thoughts Review
By Kath
February 13 2011
England had a try fest against Italy in the RBS Six Nations February 2011
RBS Six Nations 2011
England 59 v 13 Italy
12th February - Twickenham - Match Thoughts Review
Riders of the Storm.... That seemed to fit Italy against England at Twickenham. England ran riot and Italy tried their very best to ride out the storm.
Nick Mallet Italy's Coach said....... "We didn't expect to play as poorly as we did today. England played well but we were to blame for a lot of the reasons why England had so much ball on attack," he said. "Against Ireland we won 12 out of 14 line outs and today I think out of 12 or 13 we lost eight throws. When you're giving away first phase lineout ball as easily as we did you're giving England a lot to attack. "And they counter-attacked well. The moment the game broke up we struggled one-on-one to tackle some of the England players."
Now truly, I can understand the Italy team and coach being devastated yesterday but I thought they played for the whole 80minutes and even scored a rolling maul try at the end. And we all know that England's defence coaching team won't be happy with that.
England did play well and everything they did turned to gold yesterday, I really feel when Italy look back at that match they will feel differently, they turned the ball over, they took a few interceptions, they nearly had a try at the end storming down the wing only to be pushed out by Wilkinson and......
It would be wrong I feel to say that Italy did not play well yesterday, they played but they just could not live with England on fire. The first 25minutes I thought Italy were within striking distance of England they were holding England 10-6 before Chris Ashton went over for his second try.
Also some match fact/stats: Source RBS Six Nations
| Statistics | England | Italy | |
|
Ball Won - Turnovers |
1 |
6 |
|
| Ball Won - At Set Pieces | 27 | 25 | |
| Line Outs Won | 10 | 6 | |
| Line Outs Lost | 1 | 9 |
As Nick Mallet said this gave England a lot to attack |
| Total Errors Made | 11 | 6 | |
| Tackles Made | 81 | 141 |
This one is the killer of course. |
| Tackle Completion | 97% | 94% |
Of course you can make stats say whatever you want but unlike the rest of the world it seems I think Italy played well with heart, gave their all to the end and were almost rewarded with another try.
As for England blimey what can I say that others have not, Ashton is King (Long live the King), Cueto broke the try jinks, Tindall (sorry if you don't agree!!!) but I thought he was a true Captain yesterday and scored and excellent try. Haskell, looked fantastic on the break, Danny Care an excellent sniping try but without doubt my man of the match was Toby Flood....... what a wonderful performance and still so young. The whole team an excellent performance.
England as a team (yes were allowed to play as they wanted) but this was a flashback to the autumn against Australia. England firing on all cylinders and everything working for them, it is a joy to watch but I suspect frightening for the All Blacks and others to observe.
Roll on the next match England v France but as Jonno said I don't expect to see as many tries either or the amount of room for England to play in. However, I would love to be proved wrongly and after yesterday's performance, I rather feel the fans will be wanting much more of the same.
Regarding the fans at Twickenham yesterday, did anyone else note that there seem to be no 'Mexican Wave' Alleluia..... I say to this! The reason? The fans had a spectacle enfolding in front of them and did not need to make their own entertainment.
Yes more of the same England please. And now for your pleasure some photos.............
England Captain Mike Tindall celebrates his try during the RBS 6 Nations match at Twickenham
All Photos by Empics
England's Mark Cueto scores the third try
England's James Haskell reaches over the line to score a try during the RBS 6 Nations -Twickenham
England's Danny Care celebrates scoring his sides sixth try with Steve Thompson during the RBS 6 Nations -Twickenham
England's Chris Ashton (right) celebrates scoring his third try with England's Nick Easter
England's Chris Ashton dives over to score his fourth try during the RBS 6 Nations
England's Tom Wood is tackled by Italy's Sergio Parisse during the RBS 6 Nations
England's Dan Cole on the Charge, Ben Foden being tackled and Steve Thomson on the Charge
My Man of the Match - Toby Flood
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Corbisiero was excellent, probably a good game to make your debut, pressure off (relatively speaking) in terms of expected result. Up against a renowned scrummaging outfit, so some pressure off there too, holding his own would have been viewed as a good performance, he did much more than that. Rock solid in the scrum, and contributed in defence and attack too.
Flood controlled well again, though, to be fair, he was never put under any real pressure.
Surprised there isn't more comment about the game on here, could it be that no-one can think of much negative to say, or is everyone still celebrating
Unhappiness, where's when I was young
And we didn't give a damn
'Cause we were raised
To see life as a fun and take it if we can
Quote:Surprised there isn't more comment about the game on here, could it be that no-one can think of much negative to say, or is everyone still celebrating
To be honest in the past I have found posters never seem to give their views on the review thread, they tend to start a different one or on a particular topic.
I expect that will happen here plus when you have a big score like this it all seems too much to take in and remember what they did wrong, if you see what I mean??