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Man-of-the-match Ellis on the mark

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Harry Ellis scored two tries in national colours for a second successive weekend and collected the RBS man-of-the-match award as England's Six Nations campaign began with a victory over Italy at Twickenham.

The Leicester Tigers scrum-half started the game after receiving a late call-up following injury to Danny Care and scored in each half as Martin Johnson’s first RBS 6 Nations match as England manager brought a 36-11 win over the visitors.

Ellis also scored twice for England Saxons in a 66-0 win over Portugal just a week earlier, in his first game after a six-week absence.

It was his former Leicester colleague Andy Goode who put the first seven points on the board at Twickenham with a converted try inside the first two minutes.

Then Ellis showed pace and strength to score in the left-hand corner to make it 12-0.

His second touchdown came after 53 minutes, running in from halfway for an opportunist strike which Goode converted to stretch the lead to 29-3 before Johnson started to make changes in the final quarter, with Ellis giving way to debutant Ben Foden on the hour mark.

Riki Flutey and Mark Cueto scored England’s other tries against an Italy side which included Leicester’s Martin Castrogiovanni at tighthead prop.

Tigers front-rower Julian White gained his 45th cap as a replacement for Andrew Sheridan, and club colleague Tom Croft joined the action in the 74th minute, replacing Nick Kennedy in the England second row.