Italy leave with pride intact

England 20 Italy 7:Jonny Wilkinson became the most prolific scorer in championship history as England struggled to overcome a spirited Italy at Twickenham.

England failed to reach the heights attained in their opening win over Scotland and were forced to rely on the boot of Wilkinson, who followed up his 27-point Calcutta Cup record haul with five precious penalties.

His first kick at goal, after only three minutes, enabled him to break Neil Jenkins' previous championship of 406 points.

England's only try came from winger Jason Robinson — his third in two matches since his return to the international scene — in first-half injury time, while the Azzuri were down to 14 men with the sin-binning of captain Marco Bortolami.

Italy, who had conceded 159 points on their three previous visits to Twickenham, were in determined mood after their 39-3 hammering by France and their second-half domination was rewarded with a try to fly-half Andrea Scanavacca.

England were never in danger of defeat but it was hardly the confidence boost they needed ahead of the tougher Tests to come, starting with a trip to Dublin's Croke Park in a fortnight.

England coach Brian Ashton says he may have "got the balance of the game wrong".

"I am delighted we won game and I'd like to congratulate Italy for rebounding from their defeat against France," he said. "I thought, especially in the second half, their forwards played well and put a stranglehold on our game.

"I think we probably got the balance of our game wrong right from the start.

"And, if that is the case, then it's my fault not the players. I've been talking all week about the importance of playing field position in the first 20 minutes and maybe they over-emphasised.

"If that's the case, I'll hold my hand up and say I got it wrong."

Ashton admits his side will need to find major improvement for their visit to Croke Park. "I said all week what a difficult game this would be," added Ashton. "I'm not convinced many people believed me but there's the evidence.

"It's pretty evident we've go a lot of work to do, but we knew we would have.

"This is a team that has played twice together and it needs to play more to get some familiarity and, after today, need to develop and ability to think about how we progress the game."

The 82,000 Twickenham crowd booed England's decision to continually kick for goal but Ashton defended Wilkinson's role in the win.

He said: "If you've got a kicker like that in your side, you are going to say 'take the points'.

England lost fullback Iain Balshaw with a slight groin tear and centre Mike Tindall with a dead leg.