Italy’s best cannot stop England

Italy went ahead after less than a minute (Photo: http://rugby1823.blogosfere.it/)

Despite a great performance, Italy were beaten 33-24 by England in Ivrea on Saturday afternoon. While far from their best performance, England took their chances well while Italy showed how dangerous they can be.

Indeed the near 3,000 crowd had barely taken their seats before Italy scored. Just 52 seconds after the start player-of-the-match Manuela Furlan burst through the English line to set up Maria Grazia Cioffi to touch down just to the left of the posts. Veronica Schiavon and Italy were 7-0 up.

The lead did not last long as England drew level with a similar score, Ruth Laybourn in this case making the break to set up Lauren Cattell to score, the try converted by Amber Reed.

England now had arguably their best period of the game, dominating possession and territory before after 18 minutes they finally went ahead with Katie Mason scoring in the far corner, Reed again converting.

From here on, however, it was Italy who would dominate possession, and on 26 minutes had a chance of reward when Schiavon missed a very kickable penalty. Fortunately for Italy, England were unable to clear and two minutes later Sofia Stefan was perfectly placed to pick up a kick ahead and score a second Italian try – the first time Italy had ever scored two tries in a match against England. However Schiavon was again off target, so when Lotte Clapp added England’s third score just on half time, England were able to go into the break with a relatively comfortable 19-12 lead.

It did not last long. The Azzurre immediately returned to attack and, after some good work from the forwards, Elisa Cucchiella was driven over to reduce the England lead to just two points.

Italy now threw everything at the England line, but it held and just before the hour England finally broke into the Italian end. Some great work by the forwards drove over to reopen the lead, and then from the restart a fifth England try down the wing from Blackburn took the score to 33-17.

Italy were not finished, however, and just three minutes later it was their pack driving over again that pulled them back to within nine points with 16 minutes left.

That was the be the final score, however, as players tired and replacements were made England were able to see out time without further excitement.

Overall it was a great Italian performance that shows that last year was no flash in the pan even if England came away with the spoils. For England there is clearly a great deal still to work on, but they still have two wins from two, with time yet to put things right before they meet Ireland and France. As England captain Sarah Hunter said: "All credit to the way Italy played today, they played some great attacking rugby. They’ve got some physical forwards and some really fast threatening backs. Of course we are happy with the win but I think we didn’t manage to get full control of the game. We know we are going to have to improve.”

However lead Coach Scott Bemand was impressed by the team’s resilience and hailed their character: "They put us under pressure but our girls showed a lot of character to come through and get the result. The win gives us some good momentum in the competition and we are looking forward to getting back to training and working on some areas before we play Ireland.”

Ivrea (Turin) - Saturday, February 13

Italy v England 24-33 (12-19)

Scorers: 1m. Cioffi conv. Schiavon (7-0); 6m. Cattell conv. Reed (7-7); 18m. Mason conv. Reed (7-14); 28m. Stefan (12-14); 38m. Clapp (12-19); 43m Jordan (17-19); 59 m. England conv. Reed (12-26); 61 m. Blackburn conv. Cattell (17-33); 64 m. Este conv. Schiavon (24-33)

Italy: Furlan; Sillari (62 'Magatti), Cioffi, Rigoni (65' Zangirolami), Stefan; Schiavon, Barattin; Giordano, Locatelli, Arrighetti (19 'Este); Trevisan, Pillotti (55 'Ruzza); Bettoni, Cammarano, Cucchiella (52 'Gai)

England: Mason (76 'Riley); Laybourn (52 'Thompson), Cattell, Large, Clapp; Reed (19 'Blackburn), Mason; Hunter (69 'Cleall), Noel-Smith, Millar-Mills; Braund, Scott; Cornborough, Cokayne (52 'Croker), Clark (72' Kerr)

Referee: Leah Berard

2800 spectators