Ashton tortures Azzurri
12 Feb 2011
SIMON BORCHARDT reports on England’s 59-13 thrashing of Italy that resulted in four tries for winger Chris Ashton.
After coming so close to beating Ireland last week, the Italians were expected to challenge Martin Johnson’s side at Twickenham, as they did in Rome last year. However, after a competitive first quarter, the visitors were taken apart and the margin of victory could have been even greater had England not emptied their bench in the second half.
The hosts opened the scoring in the third minute when Ben Youngs put Toby Flood into space. The flyhalf drew Italy fullback Luke McLean and found Ashton, who sprinted 20m before swallow-diving under the posts.
Two penalties from Mirco Bergamasco and one from Flood saw England leading just 10-6 after 20 minutes, before the Italian left wing pushed his third attempt wide of the right-hand upright.
Fifteen minutes later, Italy were dead and buried. Ashton scored his second try after Shontayne Hape bounced off a defender close to the line, and an inside pass from Flood allowed Mark Cueto to break his 19-Test try-scoring drought. An excellent hand-off and one-handed offload from Nick Easter then put Mike Tindall away to make it 31-6 at the break.
Things went from bad to worse for Italy when Martin Castrogiovanni was yellow carded early in the second half when he prevented Youngs from taking a quick tap penalty. The visitors’ defence did well over the next few minutes, but just when it looked as if they wouldn’t concede any points while their tighthead prop was off, Ashton went over for his hat-trick. With Italy back to 15 men, replacement scrumhalf Danny Care then dived over to make it 45-6.
The visitors restored some pride when substitute hooker Fabio Ongaro scored from a driving maul, but tries from James Haskell and Ashton completed the rout.
England will go into their next match, against France at Twickenham in two weeks’ time, full of confidence, while Nick Mallett will be hoping to get Italy’s season back on track against Wales in Rome.
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134 Comments
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12 Feb 2011, 20:36 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-98: OK so I am arrogant
Show me the rules where it states that I should not be
12 Feb 2011, 20:37 pm
@JL1(JL1)-100: its just a shame that if our teams do meet, it wont be the final (assuming both top their pool of course)…
12 Feb 2011, 20:39 pm
@JL1(JL1)-101: Im not saying you shouldnt be, it always makes for such a bigger fall when it happens, ala 2010 3Ns…
12 Feb 2011, 20:40 pm
Wow, Scotland have been surprisingly rubbish this game.
12 Feb 2011, 20:40 pm
end of the road for the cowards!williams settles it!
12 Feb 2011, 20:41 pm
@capo(capo)-97: Now you’re making daddy proud!
12 Feb 2011, 20:43 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-103: Yes, the risk and reward is pretty high
One should live by it
RWC are structured to help a NH to get to the final
WRONG!! This should never happen
12 Feb 2011, 20:43 pm
@Porto(Porto)-106: don’t feed the monk ey and it will scamper off.
We were all doing so well ignoring it.
12 Feb 2011, 20:45 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-108: But it’s so much fun
12 Feb 2011, 20:47 pm
this is a bloody poor coward team and they even have a scots dar key coward running aimlessly around in the backline!
12 Feb 2011, 20:48 pm
@Porto(Porto)-109: it’s far more fun watching the monk ey gnash his teeth not getting a response then scampering off with its tale between its legs…than engaging in monk ey talk with it.
12 Feb 2011, 20:49 pm
@JL1(JL1)-107: I thought it was based on what happened at the last WC? which I think is wrong..
they should base it on rankings going into a World cup year, that way the intervening years would actually encourage teams to get away from the “building for the WC” excuses, and trying to better their rankings continually… just IMO..
12 Feb 2011, 20:49 pm
@capo(capo)-110: Stop it now, that’s your half brother
12 Feb 2011, 20:50 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-111: big boy when you behind a keyboard?
12 Feb 2011, 20:51 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-111: Good thing about toying with a ******, you just stop when you get fed up. We can handle it, it’s just a dumb animal after all
12 Feb 2011, 20:52 pm
Not a great game but Wales deserve the win entirely. Maybe a turning point for them.
12 Feb 2011, 20:52 pm
Well that stuffed up my superbru.
12 Feb 2011, 20:53 pm
@Porto(Porto)-115: Asterisks for ******! wow, SA just hit a new low in racial paranoia
12 Feb 2011, 20:53 pm
congrats wales!scots played like a bunch of cowards with english d.icks up their arses!
12 Feb 2011, 20:53 pm
@Porto(Porto)-118: Mon key ya wankers!
12 Feb 2011, 20:54 pm
Bring on the real rugby, bring on the S15!
12 Feb 2011, 20:55 pm
@capo(capo)-119: We bow to your superior knowledge
12 Feb 2011, 20:55 pm
beautiful – sounds like byron or yeats.
12 Feb 2011, 21:01 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-112: The draw takes place well in advance
Just have a look at the pools, they ensure (The IRB) that SH play NH and that the NH have a good chance to go through. Why are Wales in the SA pool and they they did jack at the previous world cup
12 Feb 2011, 21:16 pm
@JL1(JL1)-124: my mistake, it was actually done on rankings..
2011 Rugby World Cup qualifying began at the 2007 tournament in France where the first 3 teams in each pool earned a place in the finals of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
Seeding of teams for the 2011 World Cup was based on their respective IRB World Rankings. The top four at the 2007 Rugby World Cup (South Africa, England, Argentina, and France) were not therefore allocated top pool spots, but “the rankings are now very well established and provide us with a credible and succinct way of seeding teams for the rugby World Cup pool draw”, according to Rugby World Cup Ltd chairman Syd Millar
The draw was conducted in December 2008 and used the World Rankings as of 1 December 2008, after the Northern Hemisphere Autumn internationals. The teams were placed into three bands depending on their seedings at the time, with one team from each band in each of the groups.
12 Feb 2011, 22:44 pm
@capo(capo)-97:
ahaaaaaaa….
so we all see now why grant10 hero worships you.
nothing to do with liberating the poor masses…
everything to do with john smit?
do you also live with your fellow eco-warrior in clifton?
waving your pink flag, sipping your windhoek, admiring the sunset over the magnificent atlantic ocean while all the time bemoaning the injustice of your fellow capetownians languishing in the ghettos on the flats?
wow, what a wonderful contribution you guys make to the less privileged.
i am suitably impressed.
12 Feb 2011, 23:59 pm
Italy were extremely poor today they made England look far better than they are, that being said i do think England are playing the most consistently and think they do stand the chance of a slam this year, however they are the best of a bad bunch from what i have seen so far, folk fail to realise that 3 of the tries France scored against Scotland last week were from mistakes and not from structured play, and Scotlands ‘revival’ was exposed today
13 Feb 2011, 01:02 am
Nice performance by the English while Italians, well, Malett or somebody else, no matter, they are 2nd tier and will remain there. Decent team who will have wins over big boys as often as blind hen stumbles on corn.
13 Feb 2011, 06:50 am
The Poms have done well at Twickenham under Craig Joubert,
It is now developing a solid correlation.
The Poms beat the Wallabies under Joubert refereeing but were taken apart by the ABs and the Boks within 3 weeks and at Twickenham,
might make the cynical wondering.
13 Feb 2011, 09:11 am
This world cup isn’t designed very well if its supposed to get a NH team to the final! England will most likely meet France in the Quarter finals whereas AUS NZ and SA all have fairly comfortable routes to the Semi Finals by their standards. As the only challenge from the Northern Hemisphere in world cups comes from England and France, having them play each other early on doesn’t give the North much of a chance in getting a team to the final.
13 Feb 2011, 11:35 am
Of course the RWC isn’t designed to get any one team from any one hemisphere to the final.
It’s just a simple matter of numbers and the resulting ‘luck of the draw’….
13 Feb 2011, 16:08 pm
Not sure how much can be taken from this game, Italy had an off day and they’re already not a strong team. Ashton’s finishing is superb, what a player. Wilko just one point off the record again…
@HongKongSlong(HongKongSlong)-130: yep England nearly always play France in the knockouts, it’s almost as if it’s designed the other way!
@Hondo(Hondo)-129:
you always infer a reffing conspiracy when England win. For the record however, Joubert was terrible in this game, missing forward passes, inconsistency, nit-picking…poor.
13 Feb 2011, 17:11 pm
@Big Hit(Big Hit)-132: @Big Hit(Big Hit)-132: @Big Hit(Big Hit)-132: Thats true there were 2 blatant forward passes, one of which was the inside flick from Castrogiovani, how that was missed.
I agree Italy were piss poor the All blacks and Boks would have stuck 80-100 on them, Italys backs are extremely impotent on attack, not once did they look like scoring.
pople forget that Italys status in world rugby was cemented by 3-4 players in the 90s and early 2000s they were Diego Dominguez (who was 60% of the team and probably the best goalkicker there has been in rugby), Troncon and Carlo chechinatto, one or two other average players, those guys left a massive void which has not been replaced
14 Feb 2011, 17:52 pm
@Big Hit(Big Hit)-132: Sure, Italy are no yardstick (unlike France) but so far England are looking really well. Far from dumb crash and bash, pleasure to watch most of the time.
Meanwhile Italy look terrible. Neutralize their scrum power and the rest is as impotent as it can be.
What about Jonny, wasn’t he injured again?
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