By A demanding England Fan!
February 9 2012

England travel to glorious Rome for the their next RBS Six Nations match, with still a huge amount to prove.

RBS Six Nations 2012

 Italy v England

11 Feb - Kick Off 1600 GMT - Stadio Olimpico, Rome

The Eternal City - Rome

Winning against Scotland last week at Murrayfield was a rare scalp indeed but as we all watched the Scots did contribute a great deal to that win.  But a win is a win and we will take it!   We must also remember (as one of our message board posters stated this week), many better established  England sides have gone up to Murrayfield and lost. 

So once again well done to fledgling England and thank you for giving the fans something to cheer about and we must also remember we are on a re-build.  So to coin a phrase err ............'Rome was not built in and day',  and hope fully they will take the fight to Italy as Gladiators.  (Sorry will get my coat) ;)

So up next Italy who played their hearts out last week against the French, keeping in touch with them in the first half and then letting them get away from them in the second half.  However, Italy will be a far better test than Scotland and we will get a better measure perhaps once this game is done. 

Italy make two changes from the side which lost to France Gonzalo Canale steps up from the bench to start at inside-centre instead of Alberto Sgarbi, and Canale’s place on the bench goes to uncapped Luca Morisi. In the second row Cornelius van Zyl makes way for Marco Bortolami, his place on the bench is taken by Antonio Pavanello, who has not played previously in the RBS 6 Nations. In the replacements Mauro Bergamasco comes in for Simone Favaro.

Again this fan would love England to go to the eternal city and win but if they don't all I ask is a good performance by all

Stuart Lancaster - Picture Empics

Head Coach Stuart Lancaster said: "We have had a good week in spite of the weather and reflected on the game, reviewed and learnt from it and will look to improve the quality of our performance this week.

“We have decided to leave the starting team the same to allow them more time to gel together and we are expecting our bench to come on and make an impact as they did last week. Italy will be a very difficult challenge with nearly 700 caps in their starting line-up and it promises to be an outstanding occasion at the sold-out Stadio Olimpico.”

Italy: Masi; Venditti, Benvenuti, Canale, McLean; Burton, Gori; Parisse (captain), Barbieri, Zanni; Bortolami, Geldenhuys; Castrogiovanni, Ghiraldini, Lo Cicero.

Replacements: D'Apice, Cittadini, Pavanello, Bergamasco, Semenzato, Botes, Morisi.

England: Ben Foden; Chris Ashton, Brad Barritt, Owen Farrell, David Strettle; Charlie Hodgson, Ben Youngs; Phil Dowson, Chris Robshaw, Tom Croft; Tom Palmer, Mouritz Botha; Dan Cole, Dylan Hartley, Alex Corbisiero.

Replacements: Rob Webber, Matt Stevens, Geoff Parling, Ben Morgan, Lee Dickson, Jordan Turner-Hall, Mike Brown.