Italy 24 England 27: Jamie George convinced 'shaky' England have what it takes to win Six Nations

England were outscored 3-2 on the try count and were outplayed in the first half, which they finished 17-14 behind, but they rallied with an important Alex Mitchell try and two penalties from George Ford.

It was the closest Italy had come to beating them in 31 Tests between the rivals and even allowing for the five new caps in Red Rose ranks, it was a shaky start to post-World Cup rebuilding.

While England were labouring to victory at the Stadio Olimpico, Ireland looked sensational in a crushing win over France in Marseille the previous evening.

When asked is there is enough quality in the team to challenge Ireland, George said: “Absolutely. I don’t want anyone to be involved in this squad if they don’t genuinely believe we can go and challenge the best and win this tournament.

“Looking at Ireland, they were very impressive. Not many teams go to France and perform like that. It’s a blueprint for us, and any team, to look at how they approached that game.

“For us, we’re going to be learning fast and we need to make sure we learn our lessons, being very clear about what we want to go after this game.

“We’ve got a great opportunity to be back in front of our fans against Wales next weekend and really give them something to smile about.”

England have a new defence coach in Felix Jones and at times they were exposed by an inspired Italy, who took advantage of the lack of familiarity with the new system to engineer three tries.

“I’m very pleased the players found a way to change and win the game,” head coach Steve Borthwick said.

“There were areas we improved upon and it was brilliant to see five players making their debuts in the Six Nations, which doesn’t happen very often.

“But having said that there were plenty of areas we need to be better. Italy scored too easily and we need to look very closely at things that need to be improved around our defence.

Tommy Freeman proved England’s most effective weapon in attack, the Northampton wing roaming the pitch in search of impactful moments, but it was Elliot Daly and Mitchell who finished the tries.

As promised by new captain George, the favourites played with greater freedom and there was less kicking than in the first year of Borthwick’s reign, at least until the focus switched to grinding Italy down in the final half-hour.

But overall the more exciting rugby was played by the Azzurri, who showed ingenuity and ambition in their pursuit of a maiden victory against their rivals and their second try scored by Tommaso Allan was a beauty.

New caps Ethan Roots, Fraser Dingwall, Fin Smith, Chandler Cunningham-South and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso brought a freshness to England, who ended their four-year stretch of beginning the Six Nations with a defeat, but the initial outlook was far less rosy.

They lost replacement prop Ellis Genge to a foot injury shortly before kick-off and that was only the start of their problems as early enterprise from Italy engineered a try for Alessandro Garbisi.

It rewarded their brighter start and came when Lorenzo Cannone was sent through a gap, with Garbisi able to scoop up the offload.

With Allan and Ford exchanging penalties the score read 10-3, but the deficit provided the jolt England needed as Freeman glided into space and delivered the scoring pass to Daly.

The try had been coming but it was quickly overshadowed by a stunning riposte from Italy, whose precise passing and clever running off set-piece ball was executed beautifully for Allan to score.

Two penalties by Ford kept England snapping at the Azzurri’s heels at half-time and they needed to regroup quickly, particularly in defence, to spare themselves an unwanted slice of history.

Reassurance came when Mitchell jinked and spun his way over the whitewash in the 45th minute and for the first time the visitors led.

Italy’s play now lacked its earlier precision and they were pinned deep in their own half as England tightened the screw with Ford landing successive penalties to propel them 10 points ahead.

Handling errors cost the Azzurri time and again and their line-out continued to malfunction in an exasperating period for the hosts that also saw Allan miss an important penalty.

Daly was sent to the sin-bin for a trip as Italy hunted the try that would haul them back into contention, but they were unable to produce any more magic as the upset slipped from their fingertips despite a last-gasp Monty Ioane touch down.

Italy: Allan; Pani, Brex, Menoncello, Ioane; P Garbisi, A Garbisi; Fischetti, Lucchesi, Ceccarelli, N Cannone, Ruzza, Negri, Lamaro (capt), L Cannone. Replacements: Nicotera, Spagnolo, Zilocchi, Zambonin, Izekor, Zuliani, Varney, Mori

England: Steward; Freeman, Slade, Dingwall, Daly; Ford, Mitchell; Marler, George (capt), Stuart, Itoje, Chessum, Roots, Underhill, Earl. Replacements: Dan, Obano, Cole, Coles, Cunningham-South, Care, F Smith, Feyi-Waboso.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​