Three Italian tries take edge off Stuart Lancaster's joy
ByReuters
Updated 14/02/2015 at 20:35 GMT
Stuart Lancaster did not know quite how to sum up Saturday's 47-17 Six Nations win over Italy after seeing his side score six tries amid some scintillating back play but also concede three via sloppy defending.
England coach Stuart Lancaster (PA Sport)
Image credit: PA Sport
The result leaves England well placed to make an assault on the title after three successive second places and there was plenty for the 82,000 Twickenham crowd to appreciate, not least another exciting performance by two-try Jonathan Joseph.
But switched-off defending that allowed Italy to score three tries, including the opener after two minutes, gave coach Lancaster plenty to work on ahead of what is likely to be a stiffer test in Ireland on March 1.
"It's a good win and we've scored six tries but defensively I'm disappointed. We gave up a soft try first up and at the end," Lancaster told reporters.
"We didn't have the intensity right through. I gave them a bit of a rev up and said 'listen boys, we need to up the intensity', and I thought we did that a little bit in the second half."
England led 15-5 at halftime but after racing into a 42-10 lead after an hour, they slipped back and allowed Italy the last say when centre Luca Morisi scored his second try.
"Overall, if you had said to me at the start of the day that I would get 47 points I would have taken it," said Lancaster whose team trailed 10-0 early on against Wales last week before emerging 21-16 winners.
"There was that 20, 30 minutes in the second half, we played some great rugby and scored some great team and individual tries. Jonathan Joseph takes the plaudits and rightly so but I'm slightly disappointed we couldn't do a bit better."
Centre Joseph, who scored a clever try in last week's victory over Wales, was England's stand-out performer again despite being shifted to the wing after 12 minutes when fullback Mike Brown had to go off after being knocked out.
"In an ideal world we wouldn't have put him on the wing but Browny's injury meant Anthony (Watson) went to fullback and JJ went on to the wing and did well," said Lancaster.
"We assess players' performances over the season and we have scored them on a weekly basis. JJ has been top-ranked and so as the season's gone on his case for inclusion has been overwhelming."
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