Ashton Relieved But Raises New Doubts Over Wilkinson

Brian Ashton admitted England were glad to escape with a narrow 23-19 Six Nations win over Italy yesterday after another lackluster second-half performance that almost saw a repeat of their collapse against Wales the previous weekend.

The Azzurri fought back from 20-6 down at half-time to raise the brief prospect of Ashton's team losing in Rome for the first time. They squeezed home thanks to first-half tries from Paul Sackey and Toby Flood but the head coach further stirred the debate over Jonny Wilkinson by substituting his fly-half in the 67th minute.

Wilkinson, who became the first Englishman to score 1,000 international points, was replaced by Danny Cipriani who promptly conceded a try when his attempted clearance kick was charged down. Ashton, however, insisted he always felt England would win. "At no stage was I sat in the stand thinking 'we're going to throw this one away,'" he said. "It's pretty well chronicled that we folded last week and I don't feel we did this week."

Yet Ashton accepts England need to improve if they are to challenge for this year's Six Nations title. "We struggled in the second half. The Italian forwards played particularly well and we got into an arm wrestling match which we didn't want to do. We know we've got to step our game up. The disappointment was that we didn't move our game on. What we couldn't do is control any field position."

The Wilkinson debate rumbles on. The World Cup-winner enjoyed a decent first half only to fade after the interval. "It was always my intention to give Danny Cipriani some game time," said Ashton, who had already raised eyebrows by overlooking Wilkinson's captaincy claims after Phil Vickery was ruled out with a stomach bug.

Instead the Bath lock Steve Borthwick led the side, a move which merely underlines that Wilkinson's place is no longer guaranteed. "I just felt it was the right decision for today's game," said Ashton. "I knew it was going to be physical and I wanted a leader in the front five."

England next face France in Paris on Saturday week.