Ashton vows to open up in Italy

DEFEAT by Wales will not deflect England from their new all-action open-rugby policy when they play Italy at Stadio Flaminio tomorrow.

INJURY FEAR Phil Vickery INJURY FEAR: Phil Vickery

The English squad reached the Eternal City yesterday with doubts persisting over captain Phil Vickery’s fitness [>

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but head coach Brian Ashton warning the Italians that, with or without Vickery, England will come out running.[>

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Ashton said: “This is why I feel so positive at the moment, despite the news about Phil.[>

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“We all bought into this and what we don’t want now is any black sheep in the group, either playing or management, saying, ‘Hang on, this is far too risky’. We have a great opportunity after the World Cup. It’s probably been forced on me, with all the injuries, slightly earlier than I thought it would be. [>

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"We are in transition due to the injuries and the younger players coming into the side.”[>

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England reached the World Cup final last October by putting their rugby into a tactical straitjacket. Never again.[>

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Ashton believes the 26-19 Welsh victory at Twickenham last Saturday was solely down to “six minutes of madness”, during which Wales scored 17 decisive points. “This team are going out to play some rugby,” said Ashton. [>

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“It would be easy for us to fall into a tight mentality, but we won’t do that.[>

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“The long-term view is that we need to move our game forward. We need the foundations, but outside that we are looking for players to bring their own added value to each game, not to hide away.”[>

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Vickery has travelled to Rome in the hope that he will be fit, as has the prop on stand-by to replace Matt Stevens on the bench, Jason Hobson.[>

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TEAMS[>

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ITALY: A Lo Cicero, L Ghiraldini, M Castrogiovanni, S Dellape, C Del Fava, J Sole, Mauro Bergamasco, S Parisse (capt), P Travagli, A Masi, E Galon, Mirco Bergamasco, G Canale, K Robertson, D Bortolussi. Replacements: C Festuccia, S Perugini, C Nieto, A Zanni, S Picone,  A Marcato, A Sgarbi.[>

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ENGLAND: T Payne, M Regan, P Vickery (capt), S Shaw, S Borthwick, J Haskell, M Lipman, N Easter, A Gomarsall, J Wilkinson, L Vainikolo, T Flood, J Noon, P Sackey, I Balshaw. Replacements: L Mears, M Stevens, B Kay, L Narraway, R Wigglesworth, D Cipriani, M Tait.[>

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Referee: A Rolland (Ireland). Kick-off: 2.30pm.[>

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