England rout Italy

Winger Chris Ashton scored four tries as England overwhelmed Italy 59-13 at Twickenham yesterday to maintain their unbeaten start to the Six Nations championship.

England, who opened their campaign with victory in Cardiff last week, ran in eight tries and were always in control against an Italian side who had come close to scoring an upset over Ireland in their first match.

England’s other tries came from wing Mark Cueto, captain Mike Tindall, flanker James Haskell and substitute Danny Care.

Fly-half Toby Flood contributed 13 points from the boot with replacement Jonny Wilkinson adding the rest.

But it was Rugby League convert Ashton who grabbed the headlines, taking his tally to nine tries in nine matches and becoming the first English player to score four tries in one match in the Six Nations.

Ashton risked the wrath of England manager Martin Johnson however after a trademark swallow dive – something the team management had warned him against doing following the win over Wales last week.

England, fielding the youngest starting front row in their history following the late call-up of loosehead Alex Corbisiero for Andrew Sheridan, looked more than comfortable in the setpiece.

But their attempts to impose themselves were undermined early on by basic errors and they had to wait until the 25-minute mark before they reasserted their dominance.

A superb forward drive saw Youngs spin a flat pass to Shontayne Hape, and the powerful New Zealand-born centre burst through flimsy Italian tackling before feeding Ashton, who wriggled over for his second.

A desperate opening period for Italy got worse just before half-time when England scored their fourth try.

From a quick line-out ball on the 22, Ben Youngs found Nick Easter, who punched a hole in the Italian midfield and fed Tindall, who barrelled over the line for another converted score to make it 31-6 at the break.

The second half saw England turn the screw, Italy quickly in trouble when prop Martin Castrogiovanni was sinbinned for delaying a quick England penalty.

Ashton completed his hat-trick on 54 minutes as Italy drove over for a late consolation score from Fabio Ongaro before Haskell’s effort and Ashton’s long-range fourth crowned England’s win.

Result: Scotland vs Wales 6-24.
Today: 16.00 Ireland vs France.