England hit historic new low as Six Nations stars lose their heads in Italy calamity
Steve Borthwick's England lost their heads and the boss could lose his job after they were ruined in Rome by inspired Italy. Sam Underhill and Maro Itoje were both shown cards in a frantic second half, with Underhill getting done for a high shot and Itoje for a slap down.
England were briefly down to 13 men and leading just 18-16 with Italy pressing and the men in white, when reserve scrum-half Leonardo Marin went over. With Itoje still off, it was game over. A first Six Nations win for the Italians over England and a first win over the Red Roses in 33 attempts, and a mountain of problems for Borthwick.
England fans were in the grounds of the stadium four hours before kick-off and who can blame them? Rome is one of the best trips on the schedule, the weather is normally decent and England usually win. Not this time, they didn't, as they were outthought and outplayed by the brilliant hosts.
Borthwick's side arrived here on a downward spiral after their thrashings by Scotland and Ireland, and all talk of punters flooding into France next week with the title on the line was dust.
All the chat before those two hidings was of starting fast, bringing the muscle men into the game early and dominating the breakdown. All of those aspirations went AWOL in the two reverses and Borthwick was staring down the barrel of complete Six Nations humiliation.
Borthwick had made nine changes in personnel, two enforced, and three positional switches but insisted he was not pressing the panic button in the week. And that was 10 personnel changes when Tom Curry limped out of the warm-up and was replaced by Underhill, with Chandler Cunningham-South promoted to the bench.
They might have never played together, but for the first quarter, England dominated the ball and territory with a crucial factor missing, points on the board. They tried to go for a seven-pointer from a penalty, but made a hash of the line out, and all of a sudden, Italy took the points from a penalty on 20 minutes and were 3-0 up.
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Then it clicked with the Northampton connection working. Saints fly-half Fin Smith fed clubmate Alex Coles and the lock put another Saint, Tommy Freeman over for his ninth England try.
But then Tommaso Menoncello, the superb Italian centre, walked past Joe Heyes and scored under the posts. He was celebrating 20 yards from the line after beating Elliot Daly for pace, and the world was falling in on England.
Their attack was all playing by numbers until Smith went off script just before the break. He spotted Tom Roebuck out wide on the right wing, switched play with a brilliant cross-kick and the Sale men beat two defenders to score. Smith knocked over the two-pointer and England were 12-10 up at the break.
England pushed after the break and had an outbreak of common sense when skipper Itoje ordered Smith to take the points on offer from a penalty. The No.10 eased that through the sticks to make it a five-point gap, then repeated the trick to make it eight.
But Underhill got carded when he clocked Italian prop Danilo Fischetti in the head in a challenge and Italian fly-half Paolo Garbisi cut the gap again.
Italy had looked like their legs were gone, but Underhill injected them with more energy. Another penalty for Garbisi, off the post, cut the lead again, and the nerves were back for England fans. And it got worse with the cards and even worse with Marin's score and it could get worse for Borthwick.