NEARLY two years have passed since England won an international match away from Twickenham. Not so long ago they could bestride even the southern hemisphere like a colossus; now six opportunities have come and gone since they came home from Murrayfield on February 21, 2004, with victory over Scotland as reward for their efforts.
Last weekend, moreover, the first round of the RBS Six Nations Championship brought wins for all three home sides, so, in every sense, England need to buck the trend against Italy at the Stadio Flaminio as daylight turns to dusk here this afternoon. Of the three visiting teams this weekend, they would seem to have the best prospects because they have yet to lose a championship match against Italy.
Yet there is a humility about them these days. The stereotype may remain of the arrogant English, but that is all it is. The squad is not stuffed full of overachievers and there are relatively few who have shared in a championship win, never mind a grand slam.
Martin Corry, the captain, has won more caps than most, but today’s venue is one where he has played no more than a couple of minutes and that was in 2000, the opening season of Six Nations rugby. “We know what a good side Italy is, well-coached. They’ve developed over the years,” Andy Robinson, the England head coach, said yesterday.
England were impressed by Italy’s effort against Ireland a week ago. They acknowledge the physicality of their game, the strength of their pack and the threat offered by a back division marshalled once more by Ramiro Pez.
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Pez partnered Harry Ellis, now the England scrum half, five times during his brief stay with Leicester in 2003-04, but at Lansdowne Road he looked a far more mature player than the mercurial fly half who flattered to deceive when he first appeared for his adopted country in 2000. “He can kick well but his first option would be to run and bring in the players around him,” Corry said, “or he can take the gap himself. ”
There is a rounded quality to Italy under the coaching regime of Pierre Berbizier that has not always been apparent, the result perhaps of key players — Marco Bortolami, the captain, Cristian Stoica, the Bergamasco brothers, Pez himself — gaining experience in France. “We can’t limit ourselves to defence,” Berbizier, the former France scrum half and coach, said. “If we do that it would be a dangerous mistake. Sooner or later they would find the right moment to punish us.
“We are facing a squad at a superior level and if they play to the best of their capabilities it will be very difficult for us. We are still a bit distant from the big teams, but that doesn’t matter to me — in every competition our aim is to improve in each match. But England will want to show everyone else that they are favourites to win this tournament.”
Not that England acknowledge such exalted status. They, too, seek to improve with each showing, eradicating the blemishes apparent against Wales — the uneven quality of their back play, the errors that gave away ten points, the inconsistency of their kicking game. Charlie Hodgson, for example, has played only a matter of minutes at this ground, four years ago, and will need to come to terms with the dimensions of the smallest stadium in the championship — “a lot more personal”, Steve Thompson, the hooker, described it.
Thompson is one of only six members of the starting XV who have begun a game in Rome and although there has never been less than a 36-point margin in England’s favour here, they would be happy with a similar difference.
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“Italy are looking for that one moment of belief,” Robinson said, “so we have to be ruthless in our approach. We have learnt to expect the unexpected — the marching band walking through our warm-up, the opposition coming out late. You know that and you go with it. But I have really seen a sharp focus in concentration and attitude since we arrived here and that’s when you know the side is growing.”