If the rumours are true that Boris Johnson delayed his lockdown announcement so the nation could watch the rugby, then at least England's players stuck to their side of the bargain.

Thanks to two tries from centurion Ben Youngs, England secured a workmanlike bonus-point victory in Rome. It was far from emphatic but it was enough to move them to the top of the table.

Eddie Jones left the Stadio Olimpico with one hand on the Six Nations trophy. Everything else was out of his control. England retreated to the bubble of their hotel to watch and wait. 

With Italy's restaurants forced to close at 6pm, it was lockdown civvies and a socially distanced beer to calm the nerves, as they watched events unfold in Paris through the palms of their sweaty hands.

In the end, France beat Ireland 32-25 to hand the title to England once again. 

'It was a great day for us in a lot of ways,' said Jones. 'We certainly tried to play with a lot of passion and intent. I hope the fans at home enjoyed the game and feel a little bit better about themselves, because we're going to go through another tough period, aren't we? If we are allowed to continue to play international rugby, which we're hopeful of, we have to make sure we do everything we can to help society.'

Back at the hotel, England no doubt raised a glass to their 100-cap scrum-half, whose early try put the visitors on course for victory.

Due to last week's Barbarians game being cancelled, they went into their finale without a warm-up match and, at times, it showed.

Errors crept in and, during the first half, they struggled to build on their early lead to shockwaves all the way to Paris. 

Sniffing for weakness in the Italian backfield, England peppered the Italians with high kicks and chased hard to unsettle the catchers.

For 13 minutes, they executed their gameplan to perfection. Youngs rolled back the years as he burst through off Owen Farrell's shoulder, before the No10 added the conversion and a penalty for an early 10-point platform.

But things briefly unravelled.

Against the run of play, Kyle Sinckler fumbled a loose pass from Anthony Watson, allowing Italy to counter. Carlo Canna gathered the loose ball and No8 Jake Polledri, proving to be a worthy successor to Sergio Parisse, stormed down the left wing to score.

Minutes later, England were reduced to 14 men. Jonny Hill has enjoyed a triumphant fortnight with Exeter's double trophy haul, but his Test debut was marred by a yellow card for a high tackle on Edoardo Padovani. 

Farrell protested with the referee. 'Did he not hit him to the back first?' argued the skipper, who has just returned from a five-week ban.

England grew frustrated with small errors. Jones' facial expression told the story as his team retreated to the changing rooms for half-time but there was an inevitability about the second-half siege.

Italy are the tournament's long-standing whipping boys and, after they lost Polledri to the sin-bin, England took advantage.

Showing a sense of increased urgency after the break, Hill made amends for his own yellow card when he charged down a clearance kick. 

Moments later, Youngs threw a dummy from the ruck and, rolling back the years, sniped past the guard to score his second try.

'We always felt like it would be an arm-wrestle in the first-half, especially not having a game last week,' said Youngs, who was presented with a gold cap and a watch to mark his milestone.

'So we lost that energy battle a bit, lost a guy to the bin and we weren't able to finish off a few driving mauls. But in the second half we managed to put the game to bed fairly early.'

England cranked up their power game, with half-centurion Jamie George next to score when he barrelled over from a driving maul. This was a night for England's experienced heads to shine, but there was a glimpse of the future as debutants Ollie Thorley, Ollie Lawrence and Tom Dunn were unloaded from the bench. 

There were flashes of Italian resistance, but the hosts ran into heavy English defenders, with Maro Itoje swallowing up blue runners like Pacman.

England maintained their pressure and scored the fourth try through Tom Curry. Spotting space down the blindside, the flanker sprinted down the wing to score.

Fresh off the back of Exeter's double title haul, Henry Slade continued his fabulous fortnight by scoring England's fifth, assisted by Ben Earl.

Every point counted and England pushed for more, but they blew a late siege on the Italian line, leaving them with a tense wait.

Sportsmail's SAM BLITZ provided live text coverage of Italy vs England below...