Martin Johnson has made two changes to his England starting XV to take on Italy on Sunday 14 February. He welcomes back Brive centre Riki Flutey and hands Leicester prop Dan Cole his second cap after impressing as a replacement last week against Wales. Toby Flood drops to the bench as fly half and centre cover and Bath's David Wilson reverts to the bench.
Flutey, who suffered a dead leg in training only days before last weekend's match against Wales, will hopefully provide the creative spark that was so desperately missing from England's much vaunted three-quarter line. Given the size and strength of Italy's pack, expect to see half backs Danny Care and Jonny Wilkinson to kick deep into Italy territory and utilise Flutey to move the ball wide quickly to tire out the opposition forwards.
Cole comes in to shore up England's front row in the absence of first choice props Andrew Sheridan and Phil Vickery and will pack down against his Leicester team mate Martin Castrogiavanni. Johnson clearly expects the Italian pack and, in particular, the front row to cause his team the most problems, as he has named five out of his seven replacements as forwards and three of those will be utilised in the front row if used. It is therefore somewhat suprising not to see Northampton's Ben Foden named on the replacements' bench as he can cover both scrum half and full back. Should there be an injury to any of England's back three, expect to see Mathew Tait shifted from his preferred position of outside centre and Flood to move in to the centre.
England should win comfortably in Rome tomorrow but most show patience and discipline to wear down a fired-up Italian side in front of a passionate home crowd. They must kick well, both out of hand to ensure they play in the correct areas of the field, but also to penalise any Italian mistakes. It may be Valentine's Day but Italian coach Nick Mallet and his team will certainly be in no mood for gifting England an easy victory.
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