Bollesan admitted that if Gert Peens first-half kick had gone over and not hit the post, the result could have been different in a match where both teams were seeking to avoid the wooden spoon at the start of play.

He said: We started pressing them, trying to get important space in the last three-quarter of the field, we tried to stay in the game for as long as we could, but despite a slow start the English scored a few crucial tries.

In my point of view it was a good first half for us and Gert Peens was a bit unlucky with his kick that hit the left post - if that had gone over it would have been an important boost for our morale.

In the second half we went onto the pitch with big hopes to put things right. And we did it after a few minutes when Alessandro Troncon scored an important try for us.

In the last half-hour both sides committed too many unforced errors; despite this, we tried hard to get yards and a few times we were near to their line but couldn't finish off what we created and at the near end we paid for our efforts, leaving space for the English backs who scored a few tries and made the gap too big between them and us.

Overall we stayed in the game for a reasonable amount of time but they were the better team and deserved to win.

Italy must now beat France at the Stadio Flaminio in their final match to avoid the wooden spoon.