Care, Ford and Farrell looked lost in the opening half hour. Hartley and Haskell asked the referee, Romain Poite, what they could do to deal with this situation. He simply replied, “I am a referee, not a coach”, only adding to England’s bemusement.
In the first half, England managed to score one try through Dan Cole, and led Italy 5-3 in the 39th minute. However, England then gave away a penalty and it looked as though Italy were going to go in at halftime 6-5 up. Due to a supreme moment of opportunism from Venditti, Italy went in at the break leading 10-5. Venditti was the first to react to the penalty kick, which struck the post, and he dived over from 5 yards out with minimal opposition. It was very lucky, but luck favours the brave.
O’Shea will have been delighted with the way in which his team performed in the first half, and he simply wanted as good a display in the second. Italy continued with their frustrating, but lawful, tactics in the second half. Tries from Danny Care and Elliot Daly helped England regain the lead within the first 10 minutes of the second half.
CUNNING AZZURRI SCARE ENGLAND
Several times in the past Italy have travelled to London, Cardiff, Paris, Edinburgh and Dublin only to be on the receiving end of a battering. This time, head Coach Conor O’Shea, and defence coach Brendan Venter, refused to be beaten. England, looking for a 17th consecutive test match win, were baffled by the Italian game plan. It became apparent that this was going to be no walkover. Venter’s tactics of not committing a single man to the breakdown after a tackle had been made, resulted in no rucks, and therefore no offside lines were created. As the Italians were free to roam in the England backline, they stopped the halfbacks linking up, preventing England from building any momentum.