England are within touching distance of yet another Grand Slam. John Mitchell’s side were utterly dominant in the physical collisions, underscored by the fact that openside flanker Marlie Packer finished the contest with a remarkable haul of four tries. Much has been made of the quality of this England back line, but in the sweltering heat in Parma, this was a day when the Red Roses forwards laid down their marker.

Seven of England’s nine tries were scored by their forwards. Packer was outstanding, while hooker Amy Cokayne scored two and Abi Burton also crossed. England’s props were also outstanding, with Kelsey Clifford and Maud Muir carrying like back-row forwards and with the handling skills of centres, while Zoe Harrison pulled the strings superbly.

All of this was accomplished despite the fact that England are without 17 players because of injury. Maddie Feaunati became the latest casualty, having picked up a leg injury on Tuesday, but the depth of their resources, the quality of athletes and skill set have set them as a class above the rest in this competition.

It was heartwarming to see Christiana Balogun make her England debut, three years after she was given the all-clear from Burkitt lymphoma, while Helena Rowland marked her 50th cap with a first-half try and Mia Venner also crossed for a score to secure the bonus point after just 15 minutes. Harrison could not quite maintain her remarkable sequence of successful kicks but still converted eight of England’s nine tries.

And yet there is one area of their game that will receive urgent attention next week ahead of their championship decider against France in Bordeaux. Having conceded a record four tries against Wales in the last round, England’s defence creaked again, despite their superiority, this time leaking five tries, and a record number of points to Italy.

While England have been able to absorb the challenges of so many enforced changes to their attacking game, their defence, it seems, has paid a bigger tariff. Just as Wales were able to expose flaws in England’s maul defence, Italy did so too. Italy head coach Fabio Roselli admitted his coaching team had analysed the Wales performance to probe for weaknesses in the England defence, which also included tapped penalties.

Italy managed to secure a bonus point after tries from Vittoria Vecchini and Alissa Ranuccini, who scored either side of a penalty try, with Francesca Sgorbini crossing for the fourth try, and her second at the death took Le Azzurre to their record points haul against England.

Packer, 36, who made her debut in the same back row as another legendary England openside flanker, Maggie Alphonsi, and has now created her own legacy in the No 7 shirt, is the experienced head and highlighted the work that needs to be done this week.

“We need to be a bit better,” said Packer. “We need to be more ‘see, do’. We are thinking, and as soon as you think the other team’s got a foot on top of you. We’re thinking a little bit too much, and actually just trust the process, trust what we’re trying to do. There is a little bit of mentality, bit of mindset in there.

“The defensive maul was an issue in the Wales game, that last try they scored against us, and then obviously for it to happen again against Italy, it’s not something we pride ourselves on at all,” said Packer, who has now scored 59 tries for her country, just two behind Sue Day’s record.

“It’d be something that we massively probably talk about this week. A lot of the players that were on the pitch at the time, it was their first cap in a Red Roses shirt. So actually, it’s a learning for them… they’ll watch it back, we will work out where we went wrong, but we can’t let that happen against France.”

Yet on this form, it seems that yet another clean sweep will be a procession. As Mitchell quipped when asked about his side’s defensive work-ons, he said: “We will just score more.”

The most impressive aspect of England’s campaign is that they have not missed a beat despite the multitude of changes and have blooded many of the next generation of players.

Balogun’s debut off the bench was full of emotion, given that three years ago she missed most of the season undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer. She afterwards revealed she had been forced to take unpaid leave from her job as a recruitment consultant to be part of the squad this week.

“I thought we were outstanding for the first 13 minutes and then we lost a little bit of control, probably through our own doing,” said Mitchell. “We are having to adapt to changes all the time and so it’s only inevitable, we’ve got a new players, learning new roles, and probably going to take time to learn about how important things like our maul defence are. We’ve got a lot of people new to Test rugby. So yeah, from that perspective, I think we’re doing really well.”

Match details

Scoring sequence: 0-5 Packer try, 0-7 Harrison con, 0-12 Cokayne try, 0-14 Harrison con, 0-19 Rowland try, 0-21 Harrison con, 0-26 Venner try, 5-26 Vecchini try, 5-31 Cokayne try, 5-33 Harrison con, 12-33 penalty try, 12-38 Packer try, 12-40 Harrison con, 17-40 Ranuccini try, 19-40 Sillari con, 19-45 Burton try, 19-47 Harrison con, 19-52 Burton try, 19-54 Harrison con, 24-54 Sgorbini try, 26-54 Sillari con, 26-59 Packer try, 26-61 Harrison con, 31-61 Sgorbini try, 33-61 Sillari con.

Italy: V Ostuni Minuzzi, A Muzzo, M Sillari, S Mannini, A D’Inca (F Granzotto 60), V Madia (E Stevanin 60), S Stefan (A Bitonci 57), S Turani (G Dosi 64), V Vecchini (C Cheli 69), V Zanette (G Maris 40), V Federighi, A Frangipani (G Duca 44), B Veronese (F Sgorbini 44), A Ranuccini, E Giordana.

England: E Sing (C Moloney-MacDonald 62); M Venner, Meg Jones, H Rowland (H Aitchison 52), Ellie Kildunne; Z Harrison, L Packer (F Robinson 48); K Clifford (M Carson 40), A Cokayne (C Powell 48) , M Muir (S Bern 48), H Lutui (H Head 48) , D Burns, D Short (C Balogun 62), M Packer, A Burton. Sin-bin: E Kildunne (24).

Referee: J Ling (RA).

Attendance: 4,376.