NICK CAIN
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England go into the second round of this Six Nations as the only team that Italy have yet to beat in the tournament. It is one of England’s few plusses in a 20-year period in which they have shrunk as a force in the biggest annual event in the international rugby calendar. The shrinkage is such that there is genuine apprehension that the storming of the Twickenham ramparts that was once the stuff of Italian dreams is in danger of being turned into a reality by a hungry young Azzurri team.
The sharpness of England’s Six Nations decline was high...