Alex Mitchell fights back as England beat Italy to win Six Nations 2024

England won their opening Six Nations match in five attempts for the first time since 2019. It wasn’t like it didn’t cause the odd ripple of early alarm, especially as Italy led 17-8 at half-time, but tries from Elliot Daly and Alex Mitchell were coupled with George Ford’s 17 points finally kicked off what Steve Bostwick’s side were hoping would be a more productive campaign.

As new captain Jamie George warned in advance, no one will assume the visitors’ performance was perfect. But on a glorious afternoon in Rome, squinting into the bright sunshine, we can see a team beginning to lose its fear of its own offensive shadow.

Tommy Freeman, in particular, adds an extra dimension as a roaming wing who wears the number 14 shirt but is often on the pitch and a threat to the entire pitch. England’s lineouts were outclassed by their opponents and by the end, including Chandler Cunningham-South and Manny Feyi-Waboso Five new players got their first taste of Test rugby. Ethan Roots, another debutant on Isaac’s wing, was named player of the match.

None of them wished for better conditions. There was not a breath of wind rustling the umbrella pines in the sparkling Villa Borghese, and for those England fans basking in the February sunshine, it felt like spring had arrived early. When George first dreamed of leading England in the Six Nations, he probably never considered the potential need to apply sunscreen before kick-off.

He also may not have bargained for seeing Eddie Jones sitting in the stands. Jones, now Japan’s head coach, will play England twice later this year and the opportunity to get a head start was clearly too good to pass up. There still seems to be no escape from his previous accusations.

Initially, some bad habits are also at risk of reappearing. Three penalties in the first six minutes gave Italy chances to equalize, with the hosts taking the lead after Tommy Allen had an early spot-kick awarded for offside. No. 8 player Lorenzo Cannone broke through the gap in the England defense, and the ball fell smoothly into the goal post of the scrimmage half-back Alessandro Garbisi.

From an Italian perspective, a 10-0 lead felt too good to be true, but the ecstasy didn’t last long. Freeman is a player with real promise and he showed that here, coming around from his wing to provide extra man and sending Daly into the left corner. When England choose to play, they put players on the edge to do some damage.

Then again, the same is true Azzurri. Juan Ignacio Blakes’ nifty midfield move opened up more space on England’s left flank, Freddie Stewart was isolated and Tommaso Menoncello fed Allan a simple scoring pass, Allowing the finger-waving full-back to score his second. Quarterly score. Great from an Italian perspective, but too simplistic from a tourist perspective.

England needed to take the sting out of the game and did so in good time. Italy wouldn’t have cared too much when England opted to blast three runs in front of the bat rather than go for seven, but Ford then converted a second penalty within five minutes to reduce the half-time deficit to 17 – 14.

However, England had better ground and possession in the opening 40 minutes, so there was no reason to panic. Sure enough, they were ahead within five minutes of the restart when Mitchell turned and scored through the cover with the kind of opportunistic finishing that was becoming his trademark.

Italy had made better decisions in their World Cup defeats to New Zealand and France and they did everything they could to rise again, but Allan missed a penalty to reduce the deficit to just four points and there was always a feeling this might be A disaster. high cost. By contrast, at the other end, Ford kept knocking in threes which was useful on the day but denied England any chance of scoring a try bonus point, with Daly also picking up a yellow card late in the game. However, Italy did get a bonus point in the defeat through Monty Ioan’s strike in stoppage time.