England Women's Team Announced to face Italy

Although England Women racked up an impressive 55-0 victory against Wales at the weekend in the opening RBS 6 Nations championship clash, skipper Catherine Spencer says her team must make further strides to improve their game if they are to achieve an unprecedented third Grand Slam this season.

Captain Catherine Sencer on the Charge 

Picture copyright of Claire Jones MPRS Photography

Spencer, whose side ran in a massive nine tries against Wales on Saturday, believes England's away clash against Italy, kick-off 130pm GMT, will prove a tough encounter and England must learn from the errors they made in the curtain-raiser fixture.

Spencer said:-"The Wales game provided us with a fantastic start to the 2008 RBS 6 Nations," said the 28-year-old Worcester No. 8. "As a team we showed, at parts, the exact rugby that we want to play with fantastic continuity and support play. There were, however, several errors that crept into the game so although we won convincingly on the score board we are under no illusions as an England squad that we have plenty to work on.

England Head Coach Gary Street has made a handful of changes for Saturday's fixture including starts for Clifton prop Sophie Hemming and  Leos lock Sarah Beale while England A skipper Karen Jones has also been called into the starting line-up. 

Richmond fly-half Alice Richardson will also start in place of Katy McLean who is named on the bench. The only other change to the 22 sees a call-up for Worcester hooker Samantha Dale who could make her England debut if she is called off the bench.

Spencer added: "The turnaround between these two games is short but we are lucky in that we have such great strength in depth. There is a lot of competition for six nations' shirts at the moment which is keeping everyone on their toes. We have a couple of changes to the starting line-up for the Italy fixture, which is obviously hard for those who have to step aside, but can only be a good thing for English rugby as a whole."

England

1 Sophie Hemming               Clifton

2 Amy Garnett                       Saracens

3 Rochelle Clark                    Henley

4 Tamara Taylor                    Darlington Mowden Park Sharks

5 Sarah Beale                       Leos

6 Karen Jones                       Richmond

7 Margaret Alphonsi             Saracens

8 Catherine Spencer (C)      Worcester

9 Amy Turner                         Richmond

10 Alice Richardson             Richmond

11 Danielle Waterman         Clifton

12 Rachael Burford               Saracens

13 Claire Allan                       Saracens

14 Michaela Staniford          Wasps

15 Charlotte Barras              Saracens

Replacements:                                 

16 Samantha Dale                Worcester

17 Katy Storie                       Blaydon

18 Joanna McGilchrist          Wasps

19 Jane Leonard                   Wasps/Army

20 Katy McLean                    Darlington Mowden Park Sharks

21 Katherine  Merchant        Worcester

22 Victoria Massarella         Saracens

Head Coach  Gary Street   

Assistant Coach Graham Smith

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