Maro Itoje urges England to prioritise victory over big points haul against Italy

  • England retain slim hope of winning Six Nations
  • Itoje: ‘It’s not going to be a straightforward game’

Maro Itoje has called on his England side to put Italy to the sword on Sunday before worrying about a bumper points haul that could boost their hopes of clinching the Six Nations title.

England go in search of a third straight victory of this year’s championship and are hot favourites to do so, having never lost to the Azzurri. Both their recent victories, against France and Scotland, were secured by a solitary point, however, with question marks raised over their clunky attack.

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Formula One and FIA approve GM-backed Cadillac entry for 2026 season

  • F1, FIA approve GM-backed Cadillac entry as 11th team
  • Bodies say necessary assessments have been completed

Formula One will have an 11th team on the grid next year after Cadillac’s long-anticipated entry was finally rubber-stamped by the sport’s bosses.

Cadillac, a division of American motoring giant General Motors, will be supported by TWG Motorsports and powered by Ferrari before it develops its own engines.

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Ben Stokes is cricket’s last action hero – the ODI captaincy can be his Viking funeral | Barney Ronay

Instincts are to protect England’s Test captain, but he’s the functioning brain of Bazball. It’s hard to think of anyone better to lead the ODI team

This column is about the rise of high-end supermarket cheddar cheese that has delicious and addictive crunchy crystals in it. What are these exactly? And is everything just basically crisps now? This column is about the MCC being needlessly given tens of millions of pounds because the England and Wales Cricket Board sold a hat that isn’t really a hat, just the promise of a brightly coloured future-hat.

This column is about cricket umpires being reduced progressively to a theatre of facial expressions, from the brave, wounded “you’re on screen, please reverse your decision”, to the screw-you triumphalism of the confirmatory finger to an empty set of stumps. Michael Caine once said that while doing a closeup you should always stare at a fixed point, always into one eye not both eyes of your scene partner. Do we need to train Joel Wilson in this?

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