LONG READ ‘You never want to be that first England team that loses to Italy’

Thirty-two games, 32 wins – England’s record against Italy is as neat and tidy as Andrea Pirlo’s passing; as perfect as Gina Lollobrigida’s cheekbones.

It is a fixture which has delivered a conveyor belt of uninterrupted success for England since the first meeting of the two nations at the 1991 World Cup, but this coming weekend there will be genuine unease amongst some England supporters.

The nose-dive from Steve Borthwick’s side has been so steep and bewildering that no longer can the inevitable be assumed.

Contrast both sides’ performances against Scotland and Ireland in this championship and it does not take much of a leap of the imagination to prepare a case for the Azzurri.

The scrum is a threat and the Cannone brothers whack things hard; Tommaso Menoncello is an A-list midfield operator and Ange Capuozzo a fizzing bottle of trouble.

This is a very decent Italian side and they will be smelling blood. Could this be their moment?

Mathematically, the closest England have come to defeat against Italy was on their last visit to Rome two years ago when they won 27-24, but that scoreline was misleading in terms of stress levels. It was only a converted try with the last play of the game from Monty Ioane that salvaged a losing bonus point for Italy.

The closest shave in reality came in 2012 on a rare snowy day in Rome at the Stadio Olimpico.

You’re on a hiding to nothing playing Italy as an England side. You win and everyone says: ‘well you are expected to win’. But because England have never lost to Italy you always go into that fixture thinking: ‘what if?’

This was Italy’s first season in the grand arena after upgrading from the more compact Stadio Flaminio. A new-look England side, under a caretaker coach in Stuart Lancaster, were in town, fresh off a Calcutta Cup victory at Murrayfield.

However, England found themselves in a cavernous hole at 15-6 down eight minutes into the second half. They had leaked two tries in two minutes before half-time and when Kris Burton knocked over another penalty, England were in a proper pickle.

Their stand-off that day was Charlie Hodgson.

“You’re on a hiding to nothing playing Italy as an England side. You win and everyone says: ‘well you are expected to win.’ But because England have never lost to Italy you always go into that fixture thinking: ‘what if?’” said Hodgson.

“Because of that, in the position we found ourselves in, there was a lot of jeopardy but actually, as I remember, it never really felt like there was any panic.

“The first try had come from a kick through that ricocheted off Owen Farrell’s leg and hit Ben Foden and they ended up scoring. The next try came from an offload from ‘Fodes’ [Foden] that probably wasn’t on and they ended up going 50 metres.

“So, while we were under pressure because we were down on the scoreboard, it didn’t feel like we were being beaten by a better team.”

The unfamiliar Roman conditions, though, did not suit a chasing team.

There were a few cars that had crashed around the hotel because the Italians had no idea how to drive in snow.

“We’d prepared all week for decent weather – every other time I’d been to Italy the sun had always been shining – but then we’d had snow. The lads were building snowmen at the team hotel before the game,” said Hodgson.

“It was all a bit weird. There were a few cars that had crashed around the hotel because the Italians had no idea how to drive in snow. I don’t think the ground staff had much experience of clearing snow either – we had one half with snow on it and one that didn’t.”

Hodgson was one of the more experienced players in a callow England side with only 248 caps between them.

With so little in the way of experience to fall back on it could have unravelled badly for England, confronted with the second-half deficit, but ‘Charge-down Charlie’ came to the rescue. He was fast up on Andrea Masi to block his kick, regather the ball and score his second charge-down try in as many games, which Owen Farrell converted.

“You get lucky with a charge-down sometimes but my feeling around those was never to give up lost causes.  Any opportunity you felt like you had to get to the ball then do so – and that’s what I did,” said Hodgson.

Farrell’s boot closed the gap to two points with the conversion and then edged England clear with two penalties.

Even then England had to live on their nerves with Tobias Botes handed two penalty chances for Italy in the last 10 minutes. But the replacement made a mess of them both, Italy coughed up possession from their last attack and Brad Barritt hoofed the ball off the pitch to give England a 19-15 win.

“You never want to be that first England team that loses to Italy. And thankfully we weren’t,” said Hodgson.

“There was relief afterwards but my thinking was that we were a young squad – quite a few players had made their debuts the week before – and to show the resolve we did in the end was pretty cool whoever we were playing.”

In all Italy have got within seven points of England six times – two of them were on Borthwick’s watch as England captain.

There was the 23-19 Azzurri defeat in Rome in 2008 when Danny Cipriani was charged down and Simon Picone went over for a converted try that set up a nervy last four minutes for England.

Then, two years later, the Azzurri went down 17-12 in the Eternal City as a Jonny Wilkinson drop-goal helped to keep England out of range. Borthwick was pilloried afterwards for his upbeat take on his side’s performance after a shocker of a game.

The only Twickenham near-miss came in 2013 when Toby Flood’s goalkicking saw England home 18-11 with the Italians scoring the only try of the game through Luke McLean.

The certainty which built during their 12-match winning run has gone.  The scale of the last two defeats must have privately left the coaches and players questioning everything.

There was also a 27-20 win for England on neutral territory at the 1995 World Cup in South Africa, but that was another scoreline skewed by an end-of-game Italian try, this time by Massimo Cuttitta.

So what of this weekend? Are England really in danger of defeat? The bookmakers have them as odds-on favourites but there is an air of vulnerability about them.

The certainty which built during their 12-match winning run has gone.  The scale of the last two defeats must have privately left the coaches and players questioning everything.

Hodgson feels England should still have enough to win in Rome but, like many Englishmen, he can no longer be certain.

“England should win with the resources and the players they have at their disposal but Italy have some very, very good players within their squad. Italy are a good side these days,” he added.

Are England? A month ago, most judges thought so, but who knows for sure now. Another poor start and the unthinkable could actually happen.