England will get their 2024 Six Nations Championship campaign underway this Saturday afternoon when they visit Stadio Olimpico to lock horns against Italy.
Italy were the recipients of the Wooden Spoon for the eighth consecutive time in last year's competition, while England dropped a spot to fourth from a year earlier, overtaken by arch-rivals Scotland.
Match preview
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Italy will kick off their 2024 Six Nations campaign at home and will be hoping for a better performance under the guidance of new coach and former Argentine fly-half Gonzalo Quesada, who has taken over from Kieran Crowley.
In last year's competition, the Azzurri were clearly a much-improved side from the previous year and made a promising start by coming agonisingly close to beating France in their opening match of the competition.
However, they struggled to build on that performance and failed to win a match in the tournament, which saw them end at the bottom of the table for the 18th time since joining the Six Nations competition back in 2000.
Unfortunately, they were given very little to celebrate at the World Cup, where they suffered significant defeats from both hosts France and New Zealand in a challenging pool, with the latter scoring 96 points against them.
Indeed, a record of one win in 42 Six Nations matches does paint a grim picture, but the Italians will see last year's tournament as a step in the right direction, having maintained an average points difference of -12, which was their best rate since 2013 (7.2).
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Meanwhile, in his second Six Nations competition in charge, Steve Borthwick will be eager to put on a better showing after having limited time to prepare for the last edition following the departure of Eddie Jones.
The Red and Whites got their 2023 Six Nations campaign started in the worst possible way, losing the Calcutta Cup to the Scots in the opening match, and they were no match for the likes of Ireland and France later in the tournament.
However, that was certainly not the case at the World Cup, and while some may argue that Borthwick's side had a relatively easy fixture list in the global event, they proved that they did not make the last four by luck and came within a whisker of knocking out eventual winners South Africa, losing by just a single point.
Still, pinpointing England's gameplan and ideal style of play is a challenging task, as they resorted to kicking the ball a fair deal through most of last year's Six Nations competition, but while they gained kicking metres with regularity, their retention from the boot was the lowest of any side in the competition.
While the Shamrocks and Les Bleus are widely considered the teams to beat again this year, you cannot completely write off England maintaining an upward trajectory after a successful World Cup campaign, and a solid opening match win here will be exactly what they are looking for their clash against Wales at Twickenham next weekend.
Italy form (all competitions):
- W
- W
- W
- W
- L
- L
England form (all competitions):
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
- L
Team News
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Italy will be able to welcome back Tommaso Menoncello in the centre position after he was forced to miss their entire World Cup campaign due to an injury to his bicep.
Brothers Alessandro and Paolo Garbisi will line up in the halves pairing, while the back line will include the experienced Tommaso Allan at full-back with Ange Capuozzo and Monty Ioane on either flank.
Simone Ferrari, Paolo Odogwu, Dino Lamb and Marco Riccioni are all ruled out due to injury, while Matteo Nocera, Luca Rizzoli and Mirco Spagnolo received call-ups and will start on the bench.
Marcus Smith has been tipped to fill the boots of Owen Farrell, who retired after the World Cup, but the Harlequins star has been ruled out of the tournament opener after sustaining a calf injury in the team's pre-tournament training camp in Girona.
Smith's tournament hopes are hanging in the balance for now, which has led to George Ford being recalled to take up the kicking duties.
Borthwick also announced two debutants in his starting lineup for Saturday. Northampton's Fraser Dingwall will start at centre, while Exeter flanker Ethan Roots will look to fill the gap left by Courtney Lawes.
Ollie Lawrence is out due to a hip injury and will be joined on the sidelines by a host of players, including the likes of Manu Tuilagi, Tom Curry, George Martin and Anthony Watson.
Italy starting lineup: 15. Tommaso Allan, 14. Ange Capuozzo, 13. Juan Ignacio Brex, 12. Tommaso Menoncello, 11. Monty Ioane, 10. Paolo Garbisi, 9. Alessandro Garbisi, 8. Lorenzo Cannone, 7. Michele Lamaro, 6. Sebastian Negri, 5. Federico Ruzza, 4. Niccolo Cannone, 3. Pietro Ceccarello, 2. Gianmarco Lucchesi, 1. Danilo Fischetti
Replacements: 16. Giacomo Nicotera, 17. Mirco Spanish, 18. Giosue Zilocchi, 19. Andrea Zambonin, 20. Edoardo Iachizzi, 21. Manuel Zuliani, 22. Stephen Varney, 23. Lorenzo Pani
England starting lineup: 15. Freddie Steward, 14. Tommy Freeman, 13. Henry Slade, 12. Fraser Dingwall, 11. Elliot Daly, 10. George Ford, 9. Alex Mitchell, 8. Ben Earl, 7. Sam Underhill, 6. Ethan Roots, 5. Ollie Chessum, 4. Maro Itoje, 3. Will Stuart, 2. Jamie George, 1. Joe Marler
Replacements: 16. Theo Dan, 17. Ellis Genge, 18. Dan Cole, 19. Alex Coles, 20. Chandler Cunningham-South, 21. Danny Care, 22. Fin Smith, 23. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso
We say: Italy 17-32 England
Italy should be competitive here as they often are at home. However, despite England being in a transition phase, we feel that they will settle fairly quickly and expect them to pull away from the Azzurri as the match progresses to get off to a winning start in the competition.
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