England suffered a historic first defeat to Italy with a 23-18 collapse at the Stadio Olimpico raising the grim prospect of falling to their worst Six Nations finish.
An 18-10 lead built through tries from Tommy Freeman and Tom Roebuck and the boot of Fin Smith crumbled in the third quarter when Paolo Garbisi turned the tide by landing two penalties.
Italy then took advantage of Sam Underhill and Maro Itoje being sent to the sin-bin to strike the decisive blow when Leonardo Marin finished a thrilling try down the left touchline.
The Azzurri found the killer touch when it mattered most, condemning England to a third consecutive mauling that intensifies the scrutiny on Steve Borthwick’s regime.
It was a maiden defeat in 32 meetings with the Azzurri in a fixture dating back to 1992 and should they also come up short against France in Paris on Saturday, they will end the Six Nations with just one victory for the first time.
Scotland and France opened the day with a 13-try romp at Murrayfield, but over in an unbearably tense Rome it was dogfight right from the start
England were forced to regroup from the loss of Tom Curry to injury during the warm-up and they did so by making multiple visits to the home 22 and winning the aerial exchanges with Cadan Murley prominent.
But in a familiar failing they did not manage any points, with the decision to turn down a kickable penalty to launch a line-out attack backfiring.
A series of mistakes followed, including at the breakdown and scrum, that enabled Italy to build field position and as the first quarter ended they registered the first points through a Garbisi penalty.
Smith was charged down and he then dropped a pass, but he eased his jitters by orchestrating a try for Freeman that was made in Northampton with Alex Coles also involved.
It was a slick score by England that finally saw an attack produce some points, but in the 34th minute they were carved open by Tommaso Menoncello with Underhill and Joe Heyes unable to lay a hand on him as he was sent charging through a gap.
Error-prone England continued to shoot themselves in the foot but with uncertainty also creeping into Italy’s game, they remained in the fight with Ben Earl and Roebuck influential.
The home defence fragmented at times and with the interval imminent, Smith delivered a pinpoint crossfield kick to the right wing where Roebuck caught and finished by cutting inside.
The conversion and two penalties nudged England 18-10 ahead and with Giacomo Nicotera sent to the sin-bin, the outlook was looking up for the visitors.
But Underhill was show a yellow card for dangerous tackle and then Garbisi landed two penalties himself, before another blow had to be absorbed when Itoje was sin-binned for illegally slapping the ball away at a maul.
With Itoje still off the field, Italy crafted a wonderful try down the left with Leonardo Marin crossing after Menoncello had marauded through the England defence and it was all over for Borthwick’s team.
