Rugby-England complete warm-ups with 37-0 thrashing of Italy

A mix and match England team overcame a patchy start to run in four second-half tries and finish their World Cup preparations with a healthy 37-0 victory over Italy at Newcastle United's St James' Park ground on Friday.

With various new combinations and several key men sitting out the game, England was restricted to three Owen Farrell penalties in the first half as Italy defended with gusto and even threatened a try on a couple of occasions. It was one-way traffic in the second half though as Ben Youngs opened the floodgates five minutes after the restart.

Joe Marchant, impressive replacement prop Ellis Genge and Anthony Watson all then added good tries to send England to Japan on a high following three wins and a narrow defeat by Wales in their warm-up campaign.

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