6 Nations Preview - Italy v England - Richard Shaw Wright
6 Nations Preview - Italy v England - Richard Shaw Wright
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This is Richard Shaw Wright looking ahead to the Six Nations action this weekend and in 30 test matches since 1991, England have beaten Italy in all 30 meetings between the two sides
It's difficult, if not impossible, to see that changing this weekend they meet again on Saturday in Rome. Off the back of a World Cup, where England finished third to the surprise of many while Italy were knocked out in the group stage all be it behind France and New Zealand, so as expected, but. after Heavy defeats to both those nations.
Their bottom place in 2023 Six Nations and performance of others in the World Cup has led to calls for promotion and relegation to be brought in. But it's not going to happen any time soon for the Italians to miss out on this tournament, England's worst results or closest wins to put them another way came over a decade ago now. And it's hard to fathom and not covering the 16 point handicap here, despite the absence of key players across the squad the most headline grabbing of one is captain Owen Farrell taking a break from the international game and making the move to the French competition soon.
I does give Steve Borthwick an opportunity to play differently with his main playmaker unavailable. Now whether England play more open or not, they could cover the handicap with penalties alone here and there's no England players scored more than two tries in last year's Six Nations, I'll leave those try scorer markets alone.
Oddly, Italy have scored more points against England at Twickenham in the last two meetings than the corresponding fixtures in Rome, throwing five in 2020 and were scoreless here two years ago. Unders on the points for Italy and in England, handicap win by bigger than usual on the spread are the ways to go in this one.