Tom Curry injury blow as England star carried off in warm-up | Rugby | Sport

England were forced into a change just minutes before their Six Nations clash against Italy after Tom Curry picked up an injury in his side’s warm-up. Curry appeared to pick up the knock as his side worked on driving mauls just minutes before the action was due to get underway at the Stadio Olympico.

Curry had to be helped from the field of play by two members of the England backroom team, and shortly after he headed down the tunnel it was confirmed he would be replaced by Sam Underhill.

Chandler Cunningham-South, who was the travelling reserve with the squad, moved onto the bench. England headed to Rome, looking to get their Six Nations campaign back on track.

Successive defeats by Scotland and Ireland have plunged Steve Borthwick’s side to fourth in the table with away matches against Italy and France completing a Championship in which they have fallen far short of expectations.

While England’s current run of four defeats in five away games is their joint-highest tally of losses over a five-match period in the entirety of the Six Nations era.

And head coach Steve Borthwick responded to the conclusive losses against Scotland and Ireland by making an unprecedented 12 changes, three of them positional. The radical selection fired a warning shot to the squad that recent performances have fallen below the required standard.

“We’re expecting a big test in Rome and it’s one the players are really looking forward to,” Borthwick said ahead of the game in Rome.

“We know the challenge Italy will bring at the Stadio Olimpico and we’ve selected a team we believe will deliver the level of performance we’re striving for.”

While Italy coach Gonzalo Quesada said pre-match: “We shouldn’t look at the results of recent matches, because they do so many important things on the pitch.

“They’re the ones who win the most free-kicks from the scrum and the ones who run the most yards with the ball, they’re the best at dominating tackles, they’re the ones who slow the ball down the most in the ruck, and they’re also the ones who are best at getting it out quickly when they have possession: they do so many things well, even if they haven’t won.”