England lack the killer instinct to be Six Nations champions

After the win over Wales, I was surprised to see England play that poorly and even Jonny Wilkinson appeared to be affected by nerves and we had a golden opportunity to kill off the Italians when their prop Martin Castrogiovanni was sin-binned after 61 minutes.

When Wales went down to 14 men at Twickenham, it cost them 17 points and that is the kind of return you expect at Test level when a yellow card is used by the referee.

Instead, England and Italy collected six points each and that was the extent of the scoring when we had the opposition a man down.

Italy were out on their feet in that final quarter and when Castrogiovanni was sent to the sin bin, my initial reaction was "here we go again" and we had a great opportunity to cut loose and make Italy pay for their transgression.

I was confident we would rattle up a couple of scores at least and England would pull away, making the final minutes very comfortable, but it didn't happen and Italy came back at us, coping well with just 14 men.

They were gaining in confidence while we were spiralling downwards and while I wasn't worried about losing the game, it is a feature of England's performance that must be addressed.

When you have your hands on the opposition's throat you have to squeeze harder, not release the pressure.

You could see that the England players were really frustrated and after watching the win against Wales, I thought the team had moved forward but maybe it hasn't been as rapid as appeared to be the case.

Of course, you don't got to Rome and expect a walk in the park because Italy are a strong side, particularly up front, but England looked jittery in that opening 40 minutes of the game and the confidence from the Wales win didn't appear to be there.

The second half started much better and I really expected them to pull away in that last quarter — particularly with that man advantage for 10 minutes.

However, the lead never materialised and we got dragged into a game of aerial ping-pong which Italy coped far better with and how can you go through a number of phases when the ball is constantly being put up into the air?

I accept that tactical kicking can be a vital cog in any game plan but our attempts were — at times — dire and put us under pressure and I felt there was a lack of leadership.

I am not pointing the finger at Steve Borthwick because this is a collective thing and Jonny Wilkinson looked out of sorts and missed what are normally simple kicks.

Wilkinson's partnership in midfield with Riki Flutey didn't really click although Riki did have a good game, making some great breaks and defending strongly, while Mathew Tait also proved his worth in attack.

Our back three of Ugo Monye, Mark Cueto and Delon Armitage had their moments but we didn't offer a consistent threat and, as a team, we squandered three or four tries and that came down to that lack of killer instinct.

I was impressed with the way that our front row dealt with the Italian scrum and Dan Cole, who was making his first start at tight head, can be very happy with his performance.

He did well in the scrums, got his hands on the ball for a couple of trundles and hit the rucks hard.

Matt Mullan made his England debut at loose head and was brought on when Castrogiovanni was in the sin-bin, which meant his first experience of Test rugby was against a seven-man pack.

David Wilson is another of our young props and has a great career ahead of him — being able to use three props 24-years-old or younger, along with the experienced Tim Payne, bodes well for the future of this team.

However, the immediate priority is making significant improvements for the Ireland match and finding that killer instinct that will be needed against the Grand Slam champions, who have not suddenly become a bad side just because they went down 33-10 in Paris.

* Jason Leonard is supporting RBS RugbyForce, the scheme that can help your local rugby club to improve its facilities. For more information and to register for the official RBS RugbyForce weekend on 5 and 6 June, visit www.rbs6nations.com/rugbyforce