England v Italy preview: facts, stats and teams
Ahead of England’s 2021 Guinness Six Nations match against Italy, here is everything you need to know.
Eddie Jones has named a whole new front row as Mako Vunipola and Kyle Sinckler return from injury and suspension respectively, and Luke Cowan-Dickie is in between them at hooker.
George Ford is back at fly half as captain Owen Farrell moves to inside centre in the only change in the backs, with Courtney Lawes coming in at blind-side flanker bringing England's changes to five from the defeat to Scotland.
Italy have made two changes after their opening round 10-50 defeat at home to France with prop Andrea Lovotti added to the front row and Carlo Canna coming in at inside centre.
The Azzurri are on a run of 28 straight losses in the Six Nations with their last victory in 2015 against Scotland and will be looking for a first ever Test win against England.
- When? Saturday, 13 February
- Kick-off? 1415 GMT
- Where? Twickenham Stadium, London
- Coverage? Live on ITV 1, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra
Views from the camp
England head coach Eddie Jones: “As always, we’ve picked what we think is our strongest 23 to try and win the game.
“We’re pleased to have Mako and Kyle back into the team and we’ve made some changes to our starting XV, but our finishers are just as important to our game plan. We look at the whole 80 minutes.
“We’ve trained very well this week, I’ve been very pleased with the players’ attitudes and work-rate. We’re hoping to put on a good performance on Saturday and kick on with our Guinness Six Nations campaign.”
England captain Owen Farrell: "I was massively disappointed with my performance at the weekend but we’re now looking forward to this week. We’ve got a good feeling in and around the place at the minute and we’ve felt like we’ve prepared well and used the disappointment from last weekend so far.
"It’s been a good response. There were a few days of disappointment but by the time training came around the lads couldn’t wait to get out there, there were a lot of good conversations that went on and it’s made for a better training week.”
Italy head coach Franco Smith: “We will face one of the best teams in the world in an iconic stadium.
“We have been working hard this week with further focus on some factors with the aim of having a high performance level on Saturday.”
ENGLAND TRAINING AT THE LENSBURY FOR ITALY
Previous meetings
2020: Italy 5-34 England - Stadio Olimpico, Rome (Six Nations)
2019: England 37-0 Italy - St James' Park, Newcastle (World Cup warm-up)
2019: England 57-14 Italy - Twickenham Stadium, London (Six Nations)
2018: Italy 15-46 England - Stadio Olimpico, Rome (Six Nations)
2017: England 36-15 Italy - Twickenham Stadium, London (Six Nations)
2016: Italy 9-40 England - Stadio Olimpico, Rome (Six Nations)
2015: England 47-17 Italy - Twickenham Stadium, London (Six Nations)
2014: Italy 11-52 England - Stadio Olimpico, Rome (Six Nations)
2013: England 18-11 Italy - Twickenham Stadium, London (Six Nations)
2012: Italy 15-19 England - Stadio Olimpico, Rome (Six Nations)
Key stats
- England have won each of their 21 fixtures against Italy in the Six Nations, they are the only team yet to suffer defeat against the Azzurri in the Championship.
- England have hosted Italy on 10 occasions in the Six Nations, winning each of those 10 fixtures by an average margin of 31 points and scoring 5.6 tries per game.
- Italy have won just twice away from home in the Six Nations (D1, L50), with both victories coming against Scotland at BT Murrayfield (2007 & 2015); their 2015 win in Edinburgh was remains the Azzurri’s most recent win in the Championship.
- England lost to Scotland at Twickenham on the opening weekend of this year’s Six Nations, they’ve not lost back-to-back games at home in the 5/6 Nations since 1983 (v France & Scotland).
- England have won their Round 2 match in each of their previous 11 Six Nations campaigns, last losing their second game of the campaign back in 2009 (15-23 v Wales).
- England have scored a tally of 109 tries against Italy in the Six Nations, no other team has scored 100+ tries against a single opponent in the tournament.
- Italy managed a tackle success rate of just 76% against France in Round 1 of this year’s Six Nations, only once has a side had a worse rate than this in the Championship since 2007 (Italy 69% v France in 2017).
- Since the start of the 2018 Six Nations England have won 80 of 82 scrums on their own feed in the Championship, the best success rate of any side in that time (98%).
- Owen Farrell has scored 112 points against Italy in eight previous encounters with them, his average of 14 points per game is his best rate against anyone he has faced more than once; 15 of those 112 points have come from three tries, more than he has scored against the other Six Nations sides combined (1 v France and 1 v Scotland).
- Jonny May has 31 tries for England, one more would leave him in standalone second spot on England’s top try scorers list behind just Rory Underwood (49, Will Greenwood and Ben Cohen both 31 tries too); he has just one try in seven previous matches against Italy however.
Teams
England
15. Elliot Daly (Saracens, 48 caps)
14. Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, 47 caps)
13. Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 35 caps)
12. Owen Farrell (C) (Saracens, 89 caps)
11. Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 62 caps)
10. George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 73 caps)
9. Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 105 caps)
1. Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 63 caps)
2. Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 27 caps)
3. Kyle Sinckler (Bristol Bears, 40 caps)
4. Maro Itoje (Saracens, 44 caps)
5. Jonny Hill (Exeter Chiefs, 5 caps)
6. Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 86 caps)
7. Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 29 caps)
8. Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 57 caps)
Finishers
16. Jamie George (Saracens, 55 caps)
17. Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers, 24 caps)
18. Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 9 caps)
19. Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby, 17 caps)
20. Ben Earl (Bristol Bears, 9 caps)
21. Jack Willis (Wasps, 2 caps)
22. Dan Robson (Wasps, 8 caps)
23. Max Malins (Bristol Bears, 4 caps)
Italy
15 Jacopo Trulla (Kawasaki Robot Calvisano, 4 caps)
14 Luca Sperandio (Benetton Rugby, 9 caps)
13 Juan Ignacio Brex (Benetton Rugby, 1 cap)
12 Carlo Canna (Zebre Rugby Club, 48 caps)
11 Montanna Ioane (Benetton Rugby, 2 caps)
10 Paolo Garbisi (Benetton Rugby, 6 caps)
9 Stephen Varney(Gloucester Rugby, 4 caps)
8 Michele Lamaro (Benetton Rugby, 3 caps)
7 Johan Meyer (Zebre Rugby Club, 10 caps)
6 Sebastian Negri (Benetton Rugby, 29 caps)
5 David Sisi (Zebre Rugby Club, 12 caps)
4 Marco Lazzaroni (Benetton Rugby, 12 caps)
3 Marco Riccioni (Benetton Rugby, 8 caps)
2 Luca Bigi (C) (Zebre Rugby Club, 33 caps)
1 Andrea Lovotti (Zebre Rugby Club, 43 caps)
Replacements
16 Gianmarco Lucchesi (Benetton Rugby, 3 caps)
17 Danilo Fischetti (Zebre Rugby Club, 9 caps)
18 Giosuè Zilocchi (Zebre Rugby Club, 11 caps)
19 Niccolò Cannone (Benetton Rugby, 9 caps)
20 Federico Ruzza (Benetton Rugby, 20 caps)
21 Guglielmo Palazzani (Zebre Rugby Club, 42 caps)
22 Tommaso Allan (Benetton Rugby, 60 caps)
23 Federico Mori (Kawasaki Robot Calvisano, 5 caps)
