to a calf injury this week compounded matters.<\/span><\/p>\nBorthwick also lost replacement prop Ellis Genge to a foot injury before kick off, with Beno Obano stepping in to take his place on the bench. <\/span><\/p>\nEngland have posted an identical record of two wins and three defeats in the past three Six Nations, which has led to disappointing fifth, third and fourth-placed finishes.<\/span><\/p>\nItaly’s results have made for even grimmer reading. They have finished bottom in eight successive championships and have won just one of their last 42 Six Nations matches.<\/span><\/p>\nNew coach Gonzalo Quesada has his work cut out to quell the annual calls from their critics for the Azzurri to be removed from the tournament.<\/span><\/p>\nTeam news<\/h3>\n Italy:<\/strong> Alessandro Garbisi is included at scrum-half alongside his brother Paolo at number 10. Tommaso Allan is picked at full-back and Tommaso Menoncello returns at centre, having missed the World Cup through injury. <\/span><\/p>\nAnge Capuozzo was ruled out on Friday because of illness and is replaced by Lorenzo Pani on the wing.<\/span><\/p>\nIn the pack, Gianmarco Lucchesi is back after missing all of Italy’s internationals in 2023 with a knee injury, while lock Federico Ruzza wins his 50th cap. <\/span><\/p>\nEngland:<\/strong> Blind-side flanker Ethan Roots and inside centre Fraser Dingwall make their Test debuts, while the uncapped trio of back row Chandler Cunningham-South, fly-half Fin Smith and winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso are on the bench. <\/span><\/p>\nMarcus Smith was set to replace the absent Owen Farrell but has been ruled out because of a calf injury for at least two matches, so fly-half George Ford wins his 92nd cap.<\/span><\/p>\nIn addition to Genge, Borthwick is without backs Ollie Lawrence, Manu Tuilagi and Anthony Watson and forwards Tom Curry, Luke Cowan-Dickie, George Martin and Bevan Rodd because of injury. <\/span><\/p>\nHenry Arundell, Joe Marchant, David Ribbans and Jack Willis are no longer eligible as they play in France.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span><\/span>Rugby Union Daily: George inspired by Stokes’ entertainers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nCommentator’s notes<\/h3>\n Alastair Eykyn: <\/strong>A new-look England squad includes five potential debutants, facing a side they’ve never lost to. <\/span><\/p>\nThe key question for Red Rose fans: will they see a new England approach? Their World Cup style was effective, but limited and kick-heavy. <\/span><\/p>\nThe personnel picked by Steve Borthwick have the capacity to play a much more expansive game…whether they are granted a licence is another question. <\/span><\/p>\nItaly took two hammerings at the World Cup, but their new coach promises greater pragmatism. The Garbisi brothers combine at half-back, and classy centre Menoncello’s return from injury is critical to their fortunes.<\/span><\/p>\nView from both camps<\/h3>\n Italy head coach Gonzalo Quesada: <\/strong>“The Italian team today, we have a kind of identity when we talk about rugby style, but I think we have to define even deeper the identity of the team. <\/span><\/p>\n“I’m a Latin, I have an Anglo-Saxon way of thinking but I feel like emotions are really important, like any human being, but for us it’s a little bit more, especially when we talk about rugby. My plan is to work deeply with them to define together the kind of identity. It’s not Gonzalo’s identity.”<\/span><\/p>\nEngland head coach Steve Borthwick: <\/strong>“The Azzurri are a dangerous team, with some talented ball carriers and players who like to find space.<\/span><\/p>\n“We’ll need to make good decisions, keep our discipline and maintain a level of intensity to our performance from the first whistle to the last.”<\/span><\/p>\nLine-ups<\/h3>\n Italy:<\/strong> 15-Allan, 14-Pani, 13-Brex, 12-Menoncello, 11-Ioane, 10-Garbisi, 9-Garbisi; 1-Fischetti, 2-Lucchesi, 3-Ceccarelli, 4-Cannone, 5-Ruzza, 6-Negri, 7-Lamaro (capt), 8-Cannone<\/span><\/p>\nReplacements: <\/em>16-Nicotera, 17-Spagnolo, 18-Zilocchi, 19-Zambonin, 20-Iachizzi, 21-Zuliani, 22-Varney, 23-Izekor<\/span><\/p>\nEngland:<\/strong> 15-Steward, 14-Freeman, 13-Slade, 12-Dingwall, 11-Daly, 10-Ford, 9-Mitchell; 1-Stuart, 2-Marler, 3-George (capt), 4-Itoje, 5-Chessum, 6-Roots, 7-Underhill, 8-Earl<\/span><\/p>\nReplacements: <\/em>16-Dan, 17-Genge, 18-Cole, 19-Coles, 20-Cunningham-South, 21-Care, 22-Smith, 23-Feyi-Waboso<\/span><\/p>\nMatch facts<\/h3>\n Head-to-head <\/strong><\/p>\n\nItaly are yet to record a victory in 30 attempts against England since they first met in 1991.<\/span><\/li>\nEngland have scored at least 30 points in each of the past 11 meetings.<\/span><\/li>\nItaly have only once scored over 20 points against England in the Six Nations and that was in a 80-23 loss in 2001. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nItaly<\/strong><\/p>\n\nItaly could win three Tests in a row at home for the first time since 1997-98, when they beat Ireland, Scotland and Argentina.<\/span><\/li>\nHowever, they have lost all 25 home games in the Six Nations since beating Ireland in 2013.<\/span><\/li>\nThey are aiming to avoid losing three successive Tests by 50 points or more for the first time, following heavy back-to-back defeats at the World Cup versus France (60-7) and New Zealand (96-17).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nEngland<\/strong><\/p>\n\nEngland have won the Six Nations championship on seven occasions but since their last title win in 2020 have finished fifth, third and fourth<\/span><\/li>\nThey had the best success rate in the 2023 Six Nations at both the line-out (92%) and scrum (96%).<\/span><\/li>\nHowever, they ranked last or second last for metres gained, breaks, defenders beaten, tackle evasion, gainline success and 22 entries. They also had the poorest goal-kicking success rate (62%), the highest turnover count (15 per game) and the worst tackle success rate (83%).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nMatch officials<\/h3>\n Referee: <\/strong>Paul Williams (New Zealand)<\/span><\/p>\nTouch judges: <\/strong>Nic Berry (Australia) & Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)<\/span><\/p>\nTMO: <\/strong>Brett Cronan (Australia)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England head coach Steve Borthwick must do without former captain Owen Farrell (left), who has taken a break from international rugby Venue:Read More ›<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[547,4574,170,197,545,12,1943,33,855,91,1054],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18191,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18189\/revisions\/18191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"England's](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/onesport\/cps\/624\/cpsprodpb\/B2B8\/production\/_132525754_affe0dd6-afc5-4532-af1f-492ee87e4133.jpg\")