England were on the back foot for long periods See pictures from Twickenham

England raced into a 33-0 lead against Italy at Twickenham but spent much of the game on the defensive before completing a 40-5 victory.

And Woodward was at a loss to explain why they went off the boil after such a positive opening.

"It was a fantastic first 20 minutes but somehow we seemed to take our foot off the pedal and couldn't get the ball off the Italians," he admitted.

"It's too early to say what happened and why but we looked very tired after that.

We tried to offload balls that weren't on - it was a bizarre game England centre Mike Tindall Reaction from Italy camp

"We will have to up our game a couple of gears if we are to achieve our aims this year.

"But you have to look at the positives. We had a lot of new faces and we defended well but it is a very quiet dressing room."

Centre Mike Tindall said: "We were on fire for 20 minutes and kept it simple but then we lost our shape.

"I think we tried to overcomplicate things. We tried to offload balls that weren't on. It was a bizarre game."

Match report: England 40-5 Italy

One positive for England was the performance of Josh Lewsey, who filled in impressively for Jason Robinson and scored two early tries.

"It was good getting the two tries," said Lewsey. "But it was really frustrating because for the first 20 minutes we were a world-class team.

"But after that there were turnovers and uncharacteristic errors and to give them credit the Italians stuck at it and we put up thankfully a good defensive performance."

England may yet pay the price for their rugged display, as captain Jonny Wilkinson, his replacement Charlie Hodgson and flanker Richard Hill picked up knocks.

It is feared that Hodgson may have a serious knee injury that could sideline him for up to six months.