England won a nail-biter in Italy, thanks to another charge down and slide in from 10 Charlie Hodgson. Italy led 15-6 at half time through two errors from England’s backs gifting tries to Giovanbattista Venditti and Tomasso Benvenuti. Two penalties by Owen Farrell and one to Kris Burton had England ahead 6-3 and looking like they would take the lead into the break. However slow reactions and some bad luck gave the Italians 12 points and in the conditions it looked like a big ask for the visitors.
The second half and England still had to soak up pressure from Italy and as time ticked by everyone thought they would have to start chasing the game. However the Hodgson charge down altered the complexion of the game and the trusty boot of Farrell took them home. Italy did have their chances and perhaps if Burton had not been substituted for Tobias Botes who missed two penalties it could have led to a different final score of:
Italy 15-19 England
Scorers
Italy:
Tries: Venditti, Benvenuti
Con: Burton
Pen: Burton
England:
Tries: Hodgson
Cons: Farrell
Pens: Farrell 4
Teams
Italy: 15-Andrea Masi, 14-Giovanbattista Venditti, 13-Tommaso Benvenuti, 12-Gonzalo Canale, 11-Luke McLean, 10-Kris Burton, 9-Edoardo Gori; 1-Andrea Lo Cicero, 2-Leonardo Ghiraldini, 3-Martin Castrogiovanni, 4-Quintin Geldenhuys, 5-Marco Bortolami, 6-Alessandro Zanni, 7-Robert Barbieri, 8-Sergio Parisse (capt)
Replacements: 16-Tommaso D’Apice, 17-Lorenzo Cittadini, 18-Antonio Pavanello, 19-Mauro Bergamasco, 20-Fabio Semenzato, 21-Tobias Botes, 22-Luca Morisi
England: 15-Ben Foden, 14-Chris Ashton, 13-Brad Barritt, 12-Owen Farrell, 11-David Strettle, 10-Charlie Hodgson, 9-Ben Youngs; 1-Alex Corbisiero, 2-Dan Cole, 3-Dylan Hartley, 4-Mouritz Botha, 5-Tom Palmer, 6-Tom Croft , 7-Chris Robshaw (capt), 8-Phil Dowson
Replacements: 16-Rob Webber, 17-Matt Stevens, 18-Geoff Parling, 19-Ben Morgan, 20-Lee Dickson, 21-Jordan Turner-Hall, 22-Mike Brown
Match Officials
Referee : Jerome Garces (FRA)
Touch judges : Alain Rolland (IRE) & Neil Paterson (SCO)
TV : Tony Redmond (IRE)