An unconvincing result at the end of a frankly abysmal match. Never has so convincing a scoreboard victory been so awful to watch and so destructive to the soul. Moreover, this was the opening game of the Six Nations, and as an advert for the championship itself they might as well have focused a camera on some cheese slowly turning rancid.

England were lucky that the entire first half was dominated by the jaw-droppingly bad performance of the poor sod Mauro Bergamasco at scrum-half. He was appalling; everything about his game was wrong both tactically and technically and Mallett took mercy on him and his team by replacing him with the youngster Toniolatti at half-time. Yet despite this, Italy dominated possession in the first forty and the 22-6 lead at half time was wholly down to abject Italian mistakes rather than any endeavour on the part of the home team: Bergamasco either flinging possession all over the shop or putting his misdirected boot to it allowing woeful England to seize on the botch-ups to score.

Awful turnover ball was once again the key for Harry Ellis's second try on 53 minutes; and while you have to admire the composure shown by Flutey in the lead up to the try it was yet another example of England relying on poor opposition rather than any crafted inspiration.

Italy eventually played their way back into the game, with the replacement out-half McLean busting the line to set up a sweeping left to right move that eventually saw Mirco Bergamasco touch down. Frankly, if they had started with young Toniolatti at scrum-half, who knows what the result could have been.

Apologies for banging the "John Wells is rubbish" drum, but England look so clueless in contact - they have gone backwards since the Autumn series - that surely somebody in the England setup must be questioning the man's capability by now; and if they aren't then someone should be questioning their capability in turn - I am struggling to remember any phased play whatsoever.

But to single out the forwards would be unfair, the midfield dropped the ball repeatedly (if Jamie Noon plays for England again then it is obvious that he has signed some kind of faustian deal with El Diablo); and every piece of possession won from set-piece, no matter how good or clean, was booted away. Were there any positives? Ellis was busy on his return, Nick Kennedy was solid in the lineout and Cueto looked sharp when he had the ball - but that is about it.

The Ireland vs France game that followed and the subsequent performance by Wales on Sunday should make every England fan very afraid. If they perform like this in Cardiff it is going to be an insurance job - assuming that a team so clapped out could even get a policy in the first place.

Lee Calvert is the editor of bloodandmud.com, one of the UK's leading rugby blogs.