More than a slight surprise.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/16931078

Time to teach Italy a nasty lesson.

Time to narrowly escape a nasty lesson, more like. I never thought it possible but, for the first 45-50 minutes, I was actually laughing at Englands performance.

Misfiring lineout, late tackles, obstruction and disorganised defence. The remaining three matches will not go well.

I really thought Italy were very unlucky to to teach England a lesson

Hopefully

Most peculiar with the Irish game being postponed with 70k in the stadium. Right decision but handled very very badly.
not good not good at all.

I thought the new look England side dug deep and held their nerve showing a new side to them abilities (better discipline and better team work ) . A few minutes of mishaps showed Italy a carrot but England along with new blood, good substitutions and pure hard work pulled it round and showed a glimmer of light for the future of English Rugby. Yes the next three games will be hard but two are at home so let’s see what can be done and how the new side develops from each Encounter. If we can win one more game then I think the new management team have done a good job and the road to recovery is on after the disaster of the world cup.

We obviously watched different games. Other than Charlie's fluke try a few kicks ( yes he is shaping up to be a good kicker ) was all really England managed.
IMHO Italy lost that game England didn't win it.

Fluke try? Do you mean the charge down which is part of the game and is practiced in training?

I was watching the game as an English fan and that's my view.

Come on Scotland, crush those Grand Slam dreams early.

Good game so far

Scotland robbed of a try there.

First of all... What a match!

Congratulations to Wales, they deserved the win; a proper masterclass on how to capitalise on sin-binning. Really impressive stuff.

Unsurprisingly, I'm gutted at the loss but, despite the 15 minutes or so of lunacy from Scotland, I can see more promise in the Scottish side than I have for many years. Perhaps we'll see a few less glorious defeats in the future, and a few victories for a change.

I was simply meaning you can practice running at somebody waving your arms as much as you like and IMHO its still a fluke if you are successful it deflecting the ball.


Weren't very successful in that were they.


Yup totally agree with you.

Yup totally agree with you. The best I've seen Scotland play in a long time. Why the hell didn't you do that last weekend?

They did but got done by a fluke remember.....

"All stand for the England national anthem"? You know, I would, except that God Save the Queen is, in fact, the British national anthem.

Ho hum... I'm in the south now - I suppose I'll to learn to love union.

Is it just me or do the numbers on the England shirts look crap?