It was a curious, slightly unsettling experience in the final quarter at Rome last week watching Italy – who, frankly, hadn’t been at their best for the first hour – suddenly produce an almost immaculate 20 minutes of high-quality tournament rugby while England fell apart mentally and technically and paid the price for their ill discipline and muddy thinking.

For the first time in 35 years of reporting Italy encounters with England – from that 1991 World Cup encounter onwards to the current time – I felt Italy were the team with the rugby savvy and intellect, the side that stayed cool and d...