England team unchanged

England caretaker rugby coach Stuart Lancaster gave a vote of confidence to his inexperienced group of players yesterday by naming an unchanged team to face Italy in the Six Nations.

Lancaster has chosen to stick with the side that opened England's defence of the title with a scrappy 13-6 victory over Scotland at Murrayfield last weekend.

Seven players were capped for the first time last weekend.

"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," Lancaster said.

"Italy will be a very difficult challenge, with nearly 700 caps in their starting line-up. It promises to be an outstanding occasion."

Flanker Chris Robshaw, who will be playing his third international, continues as captain and will be expected to ensure England maintain their record of never having lost to Italy.

Last year, they thumped the Italians 59-13 at Twickenham and, while this season's preparations have been far from ideal because England have had to change their training venue, due to a frozen pitch at their base, Lancaster remains confident.

"We have had a good week in spite of the weather, and reflected on the game [against Scotland], reviewed and learnt from it, and will look to improve the quality of our performance this week," he said.

In the weekend's other Six Nations matches, France host Ireland tomorrow and Scotland travel to Wales on Sunday.