For Italy though their afternoon began to take a turn for the worse, losing their captain Maria Cristina Sanfilippo to the sin-bin just before the break. Fullback Michela Tondinelli also missed Italy’s only chance of a penalty which was soon followed by the sin-binning of Sara Barattin. England, meanwhile, made the most of the substitute’s foul play with Andrew converting her second penalty.
Richards said: Italy played well and tackled well and the fact they put 17 points on France a week ago shows they are a good side. They deserved to be here competing in the Six Nations and I hope they enjoyed playing at Twickenham in just their second Six Nations game. The crowd were certainly fantastic.”
Italy team
1 Elisa Cucchiella, 2 Licia Stefan, 3 Maria Cristina Sanfilippo (c), 4 Flavia Severin, 5 Sara Pettinelli, 6 Giovanna Bado, 7 Celeste Cristofanello, 8 Silvia Gaudino, 9 Valentina Schiavon, 10 Veronica Schiavon, 11 Sara Trilli, 12 Paola Zangirolami, 13 Silvia Pizzati, 14 Elisa Facchini, 15 Michela Tondinelli. Replacements: 16 Nadia Brannon, 17 Sara Zanon, 18 Paola Agostinelli, 19 Daniela Gini, 20 Gimena Panichelli, 21 Sara Barattin, 22 Sara Sala
Tries: Conversions:
Penalties:
Substitutions:
Half-time score: England Women 13 Italy Women 0
Referee: Nicky Inwood (NZ)
Touch Judge 1: Clare Daniels, Somerset
Touch Judge 2: Deborah Innes, Gloucester
