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Wed 12 Mar 2014 | 03:39
O2 Inside Line - Season 4 Episode 8

12
Comments

England avenged last year's Cardiff defeat to Wales with a 29-18 victory at Twickenham on Saturday, ending the defending champions' chances of a third successive win, while putting themselves in contention for the Six Nations title.

England scored tries through Danny Care and Luther Burrell, and came close to a third late in the game, but the manner in which they played will have pleased fans the most.

Powerful up front, solid defence and attacking intent all combined to outplay Wales, who play Scotland next in what will be a bit of a dead rubber, but a chance to restore pride.

In this week's O2 Inside Line England fans get a look behind the scenes ahead of the clash with Italy, which is a must win fixture if they're to stand a chance of taking the title. They'll be hoping Ireland don't win against France, and they score plenty of points in Rome.

Player Analysis with Jack Nowell and Tom Johnson looks at some of the tries that were scored, and there's a focus on Italy's strengths, and talisman Sergio Parisse at the back of the scrum. They then voice-over Player Cam during the behind-the-scenes footage in the gym.

In team mates we hear from a number of players including Danny Care, Mike Brown, Joe Launchbury, Owen Farrell, Joe Marler and Chris Robshaw to find out who the funniest team mate is.

There's also an interesting look at team analysts Mike Hughes and Duncan Locke, who go through the ins and outs of all the video analysis that is available leading up to and during Test matches.

Italy vs England, Stadio Olimpico, Saturday 15 March 2014, 12.30pm GMT

UPDATE: England have selected an unchanged starting lineup for the match against Italy. There is one change on the bench, with Manu Tuilagi coming in for Alex Goode.

Italy team: TBC

England team:
15 Mike Brown, 14 Jack Nowell, 13 Luther Burrell, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Jonny May, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Danny Care, 1 Joe Marler, 2 Dylan Hartley, 3 David Wilson, 4 Joe Launchbury, 5 Courtney Lawes, 6 Tom Wood, 7 Chris Robshaw, 8 Ben Morgan
Replacements 16 Tom Youngs, 17 Mako Vunipola, 18 Henry Thomas, 19 Dave Attwood, 20 Tom Johnson, 21 Lee Dickson, 22 George Ford, 23 Manusamoa Tuilagi

Posted By: Grant Constable

12 Comments

  • stroudos
    11:44 AM 17/03/2014

    Some pretty solid predictions by me, if I say so myself.

    England to decimate Italy - tick.
    Wales v Scotland- who cares. Tick. And Hogg's 5th minute dismissal has got to equate to roughly 20 points difference.
    Final match was as close as expected and France really could have snuck a tight win. I reckon that Doussain must be one of the worst goalkickers in international rugby.

  • stroudos
    10:40 AM 17/03/2014

    I thank you.

    Even exceeded my expectations.

  • matt
    1:45 AM 14/03/2014

    I really hate to have to agree

  • drg
    12:19 AM 14/03/2014

    Then again; and I might be wrong here, wasn't there media talk this time last year about BOD retiring at the end of the 6N tournament? Ireland did pretty bad that year...

    I know it's hard to compare year for year, players mind frames change, players change etc.. But Ireland could be shaky..

    I wish them all the best and hope they pull out a win for the sake of Mr BOD!

  • 10:58 PM 13/03/2014

    Brian O'Driscoll's very last six nations game and you recon Ireland will only get 17 points... I don't know, I agree with your other points but France and Ireland are going to fight to the end. I recon more like 29-24 to Ireland in the last 15 minutes they will score. (Hopefuly BOD).

  • danknapp
    9:39 PM 13/03/2014

    I think most fans are hoping for a lot of points, but I personally think the Italians have too much pride and are too improved to put money on it. I think Ireland will beat the French and will win the 6N comfortably, and deserve to do so.

    Of course, I would prefer to see England score 100+ points in Rome, but I don't think so... :)

  • stroudos
    6:20 PM 13/03/2014

    Fortunately that overconfidence is just from over-zealous armchair fans like my good self. The players won't be buying into any of the hype, I'm certain of that - the players will be purely focused on the task at hand, which is to forget about points and simply to win.

    Which gives me all the more confidence in predicting a humping!

  • colombes
    5:55 PM 13/03/2014

    Looking back to the last scrappy England-Italy...
    2013: 18-11 in Twickenham
    2012: 15-19 in Rome

    and now, reading posters to debate on how many points england will score to the azzuris,
    can i feel a certain over-confidence?

  • jimmy23
    11:12 AM 13/03/2014

    England just need to throw caution to the wind and go all out. They're saying 'Oh we're not concentrating on points difference we just need to win first', while that is obvious, deep down inside they must know that a getting a narrow, low scoring win over Italy and then relying on France isn't an ideal option.
    Also, hopefully we get to see Ford have an actual run, instead of 2 minutes at the end of the game.

  • stroudos
    10:41 AM 13/03/2014

    Come on, we all know you can't rely on the French rugby team to stick to the script.
    Also, as long as England win, almost any France win (as long as not by more than at least 30pts difference) will secure the championship for England.

    Right, I'm calling it now - England to win the title:
    - England to decimate Italy, all this business about early kick-off being a disadvantage is bollocks, it's extra motivation to really go for it, which will then heap more pressure on Ireland. For all the great progress and promising play, Italy are starting to run out of steam in this tourny and England should open them up like a can of beans in the second half, same way Ireland did. Italy 12-40 England (OK that probably doesn't qualify as "decimating" but it will do.

    - Wales v Scotland - who cares. Wales by 25

    - France will then sneak a tight win against Ireland, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the flukey bastards take advantage of some fortunate bounces again. When France look their most shite is when they are their most dangerous. France 20-Ireland 17

  • fatprop
    9:30 AM 13/03/2014

    To have a realistic chance you would have to be looking at France winning or England putting 60 on Italy because if Ireland win then they will probably have a 4 or 5 point win. Even so I would love to see us just running it from everywhere 15-man rugby and trying to whack on as many points as possible.

  • drg
    11:01 PM 12/03/2014

    England v Italy is going to be a big game.

    IF Ireland beat France; which is going to be bloody hard as it's away then, I can imagine it could possibly be point for point, so Irelands points difference will more or less stay the same. That means England has to pile on 50 clear points on Italy - Which is doable.. but in Italy it could be difficult..

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