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England sneak home in Rome

by Oli Skehan , 11 February 2012

England made it two wins from two in this year's RBS Six Nations against Italy on Saturday but not before being pushed all the way by the hosts at Stadio Olimpico in Rome.


The 19-15 final scoreline was a true reflection of proceedings and Stuart Lancaster's men have out-half Owen Farrell to thank, the youngster kicked four penalties and a conversion in what were difficult conditions to put it mildly (excuse the pun) while Charlie Hodgson went over for England's only try 10 minutes into the second-half.

There were 26 minutes on the clock before the deadlock was broken as Farrell picked up where he left off last week and knocked it between the sticks.

Farrell doubled England's lead five minutes before the interval but what was to come will haunt Ben Foden for the rest of his days.

Scrum-half Ben Youngs, who was out of sorts all day before being subsituted, seemed to try and grubber kick but it ricocheted back-and-forth, spilled out of Foden's hands and winger Giovanbattista Venditti pounced.

Kris Burton failed with the extras but it mattered little as a really careless pass from Foden in midfield was intercepted by Tommaso Benvenuti who raced unchallenged from halfway before going in under the posts to put the Azzurri 10-6 up before Burton made no mistake with the conversion just before the half-time whistled sounded.

Italy stretched their lead to 15-6 after 48 minutes when Burton squeezed his effort just inside the post but that was to be the last time the hosts would trouble the scorekeeper.

Two minutes later, what proved to be the decisive score of the game came to pass as Andrea Masi's kick was blocked down by the alert Hodgson who raced ahead, gathered and touched down.

Farrell added the extras to bring England to within two of Jacques Brunel's charges with 30 minutes to play. 

On 55 minutes Farrell kept his nerve once again to push England ahead and he repeated the trick 10 minutes before Treviso's Tobias Botes, a bizarre replacement for Burton, missed two penalties as England came away with a hard-fought win.  

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