England Player Ratings vs Italy
England got their 2018 Six Nations campaign underway with a resounding away win in Rome, although they were made to work hard for 60 minutes by an Italian side that was not afraid to play against the reining champions.
Anthony Watson and Sam Simmonds both bagged braces, playmaker duo George Ford and Owen Farrell also crossed the whitewash, as did replacement Jack Nowell, in a 46-15 victory over the Azzurri.
We’ve rated the 23 Englishman on show today, but do you agree?
- Mike Brown – 6
Not quite the ultra-reliable performance Brown would have wanted coming back from a slight injury. He bobbled a kick early on, committed a high tackle and isolated himself on one attack, gifting Italy a turnover. On the other hand, he did well to avoid being isolated on an Italian kick deep into English territory, as well as running a nice decoy to help set up England’s first try.
- Anthony Watson – 8
Showed good speed and footwork to finish two flowing moves with tries out wide and covered well in defence. Drifted out of the game a little in the second half, but he did the damage in the first 40 and looked safe defensively throughout, including at full-back, when Nowell replaced Brown for the final quarter.
- Ben Te’o – 7
Provided the England midfield with a go forward that it has lacked at times with Jonathan Joseph, running hard against the grain and drawing defenders in to stop him. It was pivotal in Watson’s first try, whilst his defence was also solid, making the right decisions and completing three important one-on-one tackles when he blitzed out of the line.
- Owen Farrell – 7
A couple of early missed kicks at goal – albeit from right out on the touchline – and an intercept pass mitigated an otherwise impressive performance. Made breaks, zipped passes to runners going through holes and defended well with an unfamiliar man outside of him.
- Jonny May – 6
An up and down game from May. The Leicester flyer found himself exposed for Tommaso Benvenuti’s try when he bit on a pass, not trusting his inside defender and then compounded the error immediately after, tackling a player in the air on the restart. He did look for plenty of work in the midfield, however, adding plenty to the England attack and setting up Watson’s second try.
- George Ford – 8
Looked in fine form in his first game of the championship, mixing up his passing on the gain-line and keeping an England back line ticking over that looked like a constant threat in Rome. Linked up excellently with Farrell and bagged a deserved try in the second half.
- Ben Youngs – n/a
Unfortunately, a nasty looking knee injury saw Youngs leave the field early, before he was able to really influence the game.
- Mako Vunipola – 7
Provided a solid anchor to the scrum as Dan Cole went to work on the opposite side and helped make up for his brother’s absence with strong carries around the fringe and good link play.
- Dylan Hartley – 7
The captain nailed all 11 of his lineout throws, laying a foundation which England were able to attack off and two of his side’s four tries whilst he was on the pitch resulted directly from the set-piece. Tackled and carried well, too.
- Dan Cole – 8
Scrummaged well in both halves and saw off Andrea Lovotti in the first, as well as proving energetic with the ball in the hand. Along with Vunipola, showed skilful hands and contributed to the high-tempo game England tried to play.
- Joe Launchbury – 6
Carried strongly early on and helped make up for England’s missing ball-carriers but did drift out of the game as it went on. It certainly wasn’t a substandard performance from Launchbury, but he didn’t quite match the impact that fellow rear five forwards Maro Itoje and Courtney Lawes produced.
- Maro Itoje – 7
Didn’t quite influence the game as a carrier as much as he would have liked, but more than made up for that with his powerful defence and versatile work at the lineout. Began to float wider as the game went on and that should be something to watch as the tournament goes on.
- Courtney Lawes – 8
A busy, industrious performance from the Northampton man, with the flank impressing particularly with his defence on the gain-line and his high-flying lineout work. Consistently drew Italian defenders to him at the lineout and set up Sam Simmonds’ first try – and the bonus point for England – with a quick transfer at the set-piece.
- Chris Robshaw – 6
A solid, nuts and bolts performance from England’s elder statesman in the back-row. Tackled his guts out with Sam Simmonds in the first half and helped England weather the powerplays that Italy brought throughout the first 60 minutes.
- Sam Simmonds – 8
Soaked up pressure well in the first half, leading England’s tackle count and chopping down some of the more powerful Italian carriers with efficiency. Got more of an opportunity to show his carrying threat in the second half and took both his tries well, leaving the Italian defence for dead with his acceleration and leg drive through tackles.
Replacements
- Jamie George – 6
Underthrew one lineout, but otherwise beavered away industriously.
- Alec Hepburn – n/a
Came on for his debut with less than 10 minutes left to play and didn’t really have an opportunity to influence the match.
- Harry Williams – 6
Continued Cole’s scrummaging dominance and ran hard with ball-in-hand.
- George Kruis – 6
Continued from where Lawes left off, doing what was required of him without overplaying his hand.
- Sam Underhill – 6
Little time to impress after replacing Robshaw but made no noticeable errors.
- Danny Care – 7
Ran the show well after Youngs was forced from the field with a knee injury. Might be a little disappointed to not put a real marker down with the extended playing time but should still be England’s starter if the injury to Youngs is significant.
- Jonathan Joseph – 6
Looked dangerous after replacing Te’o and made a couple of jinking runs that almost ended in English tries. There was no lark of sharpness after sitting on the bench for 60 minutes.
- Jack Nowell – 7
Grabbed a late try but also looked threatening in two or three other occasions, where his fast footwork left Italian defenders grasping at thin air.
Comments on RugbyPass
An on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to comments