The English national rugby team went to Rome and come away with the win but they hardly bathed themselves in glory. England were again in a commanding position by half time leading the Italians 20 – 6 with Paul Sackey and Toby Flood scoring tries with Johnny Wilkinson duly converting both tries and also scoring two penalties. Then in the second half England imploded again allowing the Italians to score 13 points including allowing Simon Picone to score a soft try. England looked second best in the second half as the Italians ran rampant over England including that try, conversion and two further penalties. All England could do in reply was score a penalty off Wilkinson’s boot, which made all the difference in the end. Given how badly England were flagging by the end they were lucky to come away with the win, all it would have taken is an Italian penalty to snatch victory away like the Welsh did a week ago! The final score ended up 21 – 19 to the English, hardly a convincing win after the first half dominance. England move up to 4th in the Six Nations table as Wales and France maintain their 100% record beating Scotland and Ireland respectively.