England stay in touch with France after second-half rout

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MATCH REPORT: England stayed in touch with France on the Six Nations table, recording a 47-24 bonus-point win over a willing, but outclassed Italy at Twickenham on Sunday.

The victory sees England move to within a point of France (who play Scotland next week), but have to get another bonus-point win against Wales in Cardiff and hope the Scots do them a favour.

The win was set up with a second half rout from the English.

After an even first half, England held a narrow 21-17 lead at half-time.

However, a 12-minute, 21-point second-half blitz saw it blow out to 42-17 and the match over as a contest.

* To recap the drama, CLICK HERE!

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Man of the match: Fullback Ange Capuozzo is always exciting, but the best Italian player was, by some distance, loose forward Sebastian Negri. Ollie Sleightholme, with his two tries and impressive finishing, certainly comes into the frame. Loose forwards Ben Earl and Tom Curry were also good value. Our award goes to England lock Ollie Chessum - several productive carries, effective on defence and most significantly his 12 line-out wins.

Moment of the match: You can pick a number of the England tries, but the Ross Vintcent try on the half-hour mark - starting with a quick throw and a counter from inside the Italian half and a weaving run by Ange Capuozzo - gets our award.

Villain: No villains

The scorers

For England
Tries: Willis, Freeman, Sleightholme 2, M Smith, T Curry, Earl
Cons: F Smith 6

For Italy
Tries: Capuozzo, Vintcent, Menoncello
Cons: Garbisi 3
Pen: Garbisi

Teams:

England: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Fraser Dingwall, 11 Ollie Sleightholme, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Alex Mitchell, 8 Tom Willis, 7 Ben Earl, 6 Tom Curry, 5 Ollie Chessum, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Jamie George, 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Joe Heyes, 19 Ted Hill, 20 Chandler Cunningham-South, 21 Ben Curry, 22 Jack van Poortvliet, 23 Marcus Smith.

Italy: 15 Ange Capuozzo, 14 Monty Ioane, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Matt Gallagher, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Ross Vintcent, 7 Michele Lamaro (captain), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolò Cannone, 3 Marco Riccioni, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti.
Replacements: 16 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Simone Ferrari, 19 Riccardo Favretto, 20 Manuel Zuliani, 21 Lorenzo Cannone, 22 Martin Page-Relo, 23 Tommaso Allan.

Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Craig Evans (Wales) & Luc Ramos (France)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)