Johnson relief as England on track

MARTIN JOHNSON admitted he was relieved to escape Rome with a victory after watching England battle to an unconvincing win against Nick Mallett’s Italy yesterday at the Stadio Flaminio.

Mathew Tait’s try early in the second half ultimately proved the difference – but England needed a late Jonny Wilkinson drop goal to finally kill off a spirited Italian effort.

The Azzurri had trailed 14-6 but pushed England to the brink with four penalties from Mirco Bergamasco.

“You play Italy over here and it is never easy,” said Johnson. “Scotland have lost here, Wales have lost here. I am happy to win today. It was a tough, physical game which we thought it would be. The frustrating thing is we opened them up but we didn’t take those chances.

“The guys knew they could have done better. You can lose close games like that if you lose your discipline and composure.

“It was disappointing in the second half, we lost five lineouts and we couldn’t get field position. That is a big number of set-piece balls to lose.

“We were attacking from 80 metres out. It makes it tough, we didn’t have enough possession in their half.”

England showed in flashes how dangerous an attacking force they could be and Tait’s try was well-crafted by Nick Easter, Ugo Monye and Delon Armitage. But England spent far too long engaged in an aimless kicking contest.

“The kick-chase wasn’t good enough,” said Johnson. “It gave them a platform to create pressure. We lost that game for the majority of the match. The guys are happy to win but knew they could have done better.”

There was a sense of Italian disappointment after another potential Six Nations scalp slipped away. Italy coach Nick Mallett felt that the game came down to Tait’s try.

“There was not much difference between the two sides. I thought the game would be decided by a mistake. Andrea Masi had a very good game but he unfortunately got his head on the wrong side of the tackle and England scored the only try.

“It’s unusual that Wilkinson doesn’t kick that well. I’m proud of the way the guys played,” Mallett said.

“We improved in areas of the game that we had struggled with in Ireland. “Our attacking play and speed were better than the game against Ireland. I think it’s good the team is disappointed. This team does not lack ambition, it’s a team that wants to be among the 10 best in the world and grow in our play and discipline.”

Scorers for Italy: Mirco Bergamasco co 4 pens.

Scorers for England: M Tait try; J Wilkinson 3 pens, drop goal.

ITALY: L McLean; A Masi, G Canale, G Garcia, Mirco Bergamasco; C Gower, T Tebaldi; S Perugini, L Ghiraldini (capt), M Castrogiovanni; Q Geldenhuys, M Bortolami; J Sole, Mauro Bergamasco, A Zanni.

Replacements: K Robertson for Masi (55), P Canavosio for Tebaldi (53), M Aguero for Perugini (55), F Ongaro for Ghiraldini (75).

ENGLAND: D Armitage; M Cueto, M Tait, R Flutey, U Monye; J Wilkinson, D Care; T Payne, D Hartley, Cole; S Shaw, S Borthwick (capt); J Haskell, L Moody, N Easter.

Replacements: P Hodgson for Care (75), M Mullan for Payne (59), S Thompson for Hartley (69), D Wilson for Cole (64), L Deacon for Shaw (64), S Armitage for Moody (72)

Referee: Christophe Berdos (France).