England vs Italy

Today, England played Italy away and started off incredibly well, maybe to prove that last week's farce was merely a blip on their record. Starting without Phil Vickery, as he had a dicky tummy, bless, they had Steve Borthwick as captain and he seemed to be doing an infinitely better job than his predecessor. And, my choice for captain, Andy Gomarsall doing what Wayne Rooney didn't earlier this week, singing his national anthem loud and proud as the camera passed by.
Jonny Wilkinson got us off to a great early start with a brilliant, and cheeky pass to Paul Sackey leading to the swift back speeding through and score a try boosting the morale of the team and of the supporters. Almost immediately a silly mistake gave away a penalty, and 3 points, almost immediately deleting the morale boost.
A decisive block by Jamie Noon lead to an impressive one-handed diving try by Toby Flood, possibly excusing a couple of almost fatal mistakes later on in the match. From this try Wilko managed to convert to reach his 1000th point in international matches. Congratulations to the hero and often target and scape-goat of our proud team.
A long, slow pass by Iain Balshaw, directly across the goal line could have been our death-knell, just before half time, though we managed to avoid that fate and finished the half having played well and leading by 6 - 20.
We never really played well at all during the second half and it was mainly marked by some of our best players coming off the field. Jamie Noon took a boot to the forehead which took him off the field for about 10 minutes, bringing Mathew Tait onto the field for too short a time.
Gomarsall was taken off at 59 minutes, having not found any openings at all during the second half.
Nick Easter kept making mistakes and should have been taken off the field, and deselected if you ask me, though managed to stay on. Though Wilko was taken off the field at 66 minutes bringing Danny Cipriani on for what was hoped to be some fresh legs and youthful enthusiasm, although his first decisive move was to have a telegraphed kick blocked by Italy resulting in a deserved try by a team who had dominated during the whole of the second half. Hopefully this won't affect Cipriani's confidence for further matches for England, which I am certain he will have.
Apart from a superb ankle-tap tackle on Kaine Robertson by Noon, preventing a try at 70 minutes, England barely survived the match to the end, only just winning with the score at 19 -23.
Well played Italy, we were lucky as we relaxed, yet again, during the second half. We really need to work on this above all else. Keep Borthwick as captain, get rid of Balshaw and Easter and bring on Cipriani and Tait for longer, though not a whole match yet.
Pietro Travagli;
The incredibly sexy, dark haired Santiago Dellape;
And captain Sergio Parisse who reached his 50th cap for his country in today's match and played like he really deserved it, deservedly earning the Player of the Match award. I would ceratinly like to see more of this man;
Ooh! Look! There is some more!

Handsome Andrea Masi;
Wild-haired Alessandro Zanni, who is also a handsome devil;
Andrea Mercato teasing us with a hint of his "treasure trail";
The Bergamasco brothers, Mirco and Mauro, what a pair eh?;
And amazingly handsome Kaine Robertson (very Italian name), who played incredibly well today;