Mike Brown enjoys scoring England's first try
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Matches: Italy 11 - 52 England

England eased past Italy 52-11 but they did not do enough to cancel out Ireland's superior points difference at the top of the Six Nations table.

Match Analysis

• Man of the Match: Mike Brown. He has had a brilliant tournament and chipped in with two tries.
• Key moment: Brown's second try just before half-time was effectively the game-clincher. The gap was just too much for Italy.
• Hero: He has not received much praise this championship with Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes singled out for more individual accolades in the pack but Chris Robshaw has had a quietly superb championship.
• Villain: From an England point of view, the conceded intercept try saw them lose momentum and helped prevent them from getting even with Ireland on points difference.
• Talking point: England's decision to substitute Luther Burrell for Manu Tuilagi raised a few eyebrows. Burrell was giving the team essential go-forward and should have stayed on the field. Much of the talk this week has been about how England potentially see Tuilagi used on the wing in the future so it would have made more sense to bring Tuilagi on for Jonny May.
• Play of the Game: England's first try was wonderfully simplistic. Burrell took the ball to the line and offloaded to Brown who scored. Simple rugby but brutally effective.
• Tom Hamilton

The deluge of tries at the Stadio Olimpico was insufficient to overhaul the Irish, who seized the title with a nerve-jangling 22-20 win over France in Paris. England finish runners-up up for the third successive year and are still searching for a first title under head coach Stuart Lancaster, despite their best efforts against Italy.

Mike Brown's sensational Championship continued with his brace of tries decorating a fine individual contribution, while Owen Farrell, Jack Nowell, Mako Vunipola, Manu Tuilagi and Chris Robshaw also crossed in the 52-11 victory.

Tuilagi made his first England appearance in a year after completing his comeback from chest surgery, replacing Luther Burrell at outside centre with half an hour to go, and made inroads into a tiring Italy defence. Once more Farrell's goal kicking was outstanding with the British and Irish Lion converting all seven tries and also slotting a penalty, but he was lucky to escape a late yellow card after tackling Edoardo Gori around the throat and wrestling him to the ground.

All week England had stated that winning was their only ambition for the climax to their Six Nations in Rome, but the attacking intent evident from the kick off told a different story. At times they played with too much haste and the resulting lack of accuracy disrupted their momentum, preventing them from posting the necessary winning margin to trouble Ireland on points difference.

A cagey opening saw Italy dominate possession and draw first blood with a long-range penalty from Luciano Orquera that was greeted with a mighty roar from the sell-out 80,000 crowd. Farrell levelled the score with a penalty and the Red Rose went on the offensive, rapidly spinning the ball left and right as they probed for weaknesses.

A brilliant offload from Luther Burrell pierced Italy's defence with the Northampton centre's pass out of a tackle by Gonzalo Garcia finding Brown who switched on the afterburners and raced over. Loosehead Mako Vunipola was penalised at a scrum and Orquera obliged with the three points to keep Italy in touch.

Brown was involved in just about every England move and when Burrell powered into space and fed Danny Care they looked on for a second try, but Italy's cover defence was solid. Burrell and Care were prominent as England attacked again and this time they were able to cross the whitewash, their scrum-half darting across field and sending Farrell in under the posts.

The floodgates were already opening and this time Farrell was the provider as he rode a tackle and expertly slipped a pass to Brown who galloped over. Campagnaro took advantage of Burrell being caught out of position to break free amid a promising start to the second half from Italy, but England were soon back on the offensive.

The tempo was lifted but passes were failing to stick, number eight Ben Morgan knocking on at full tilt and Vunipola spilling forward. Burrell went within a whisker of scoring but the ball was kicked from his grasp by an unconventional late tackle made out of hope rather than expectation.

Italy's problems mounted when Marco Bortolami was sin-binned for off-side and soon after their whitewash was breached for a fourth time, Nowell rounding off a backs move at a scrum. Adding to their woes was the 53rd minute arrival of Tuilagi from the bench, although the decision to bring him on at the expensive of the superb Burrell was odd.

Italy's defence was falling to pieces and they effectively waved England through for their next two tries with Vunipola and Tuilagi strolling over. It was then the visitors' turn to blunder, however, with wing Leonardo Sarto picking off an intercept try from Joe Launchbury's pass.

The flow of tries had dried up, but there was still time for one more with captain Chris Robshaw taking Farrell's injury-time pass and coasting over.

Luther Burrell looks for the offload © Getty Images

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