England v Italy: Teams

England welcome Italy to Twickenham on Saturday as Martin Johnson's charges attempts to kick-off their RBS Six Nations challenge with a much-needed win.

Three crushing defeats in autumn have seen plenty of questions asked about the quality of the current England crop, however the new regime have the perfect chance to put things right against the Azzurri.

England have beaten Italy in all nine of the previous Six Nations meeting between the sides, and remain strong favourites to make it 10 in a row on Saturday.

However the previous two Six Nations meetings between England and Italy have highlighted that the gap in quality between the sides is closer than ever.

An edgy 20-7 win at Twickenham in 2007 was followed up with an even less convincing 23-19 success at the Stadio Flaminio last time out.

Both teams have been forced to reshuffle their side ahead of Saturday's showdown - Danny Cipriani's exclusion from the squad the most notable talking point for England.

Torrid

The Wasps fly-half endured a torrid time in the autumn internationals and Johnson has opted for experience ahead of exuberance by selecting Andy Goode at No.10.

Goode will team up with former Leicester Tigers team-mate Harry Ellis - Danny Care's ankle injury forcing a change in personnel at scrum-half.

Elsewhere in the back-line, outside centre Mike Tindall was ruled out on Friday night after injuring his back in a weights session. He is replaced in the starting XV by Jamie Noon, who was not named in the original 22.

Wing Mark Cueto is back in the white jersey after a string of impressive performances for Sale have seen him top the Guinness Premiership try-scoring charts.

London Irish star Delon Armitage starts at full-back for England and he and brother Steffon, who will make his debut at No.7, will become the first brothers to start for the national side since Rory and Tony Underwood in 1995.

Dominant

Andrew Sheridan, Lee Mears and Phil Vickery form what on paper looks a formidable front row, and with Steve Borthwick and Nick Kennedy behind them England will be hoping for dominant displays in both scrum and line-out.

Italy head coach Nick Mallet has been forced to move flanker Mauro Bergamasco into the scrum-half position after Simone Piccone and Pietro Travagli were been ruled out of the entire tournament and Pablo Canavosio failed to recover from injury.

Mallett has also called Martin Castrogiovanni back into the side after a 12-month absence, while Toulouse-born Jean-Francois Montauriol will make his debut off the bench.

The Azzurri will be led by effervescent captain Sergio Parisse and he will need to be at his dominant best in the pack if the visitors have any chance of a shock success.

England: 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Paul Sackey, 13 Jamie Noon, 12 Riki Flutey, 11 Mark Cueto, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Harry Ellis, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Steffon Armitage, 6 James Haskell, 5 Nick Kennedy, 4 Steve Borthwick (captain), 3 Phil Vickery, 2 Lee Mears, 1 Andrew Sheridan.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Julian White, 18 Tom Croft, 19 Joe Worsley, 20 Ben Foden, 21 Shane Geraghty, 22 Mathew Tait.

Italy: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Kane Robertson, 13 Gonzalo Canale, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Mirco Bergamasco, 10 Andrea Marcato, 9 Mauro Beragamasco, 8 Sergio Parisse (captain), 7 Alessandro Zanni, 6 Josh Sole, 5 Marco Bortolami, 4 Santiago Dellapé, 3 Martin Castrogiovani, 2 Fabio Ongaro, 1 Salvatore Perugini.
Replacements: 16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Carlos Nieto, 18 Tommaso Reato, 19 Jean-Francois Montauriol, 20 Giulio Toniolatti, 21 Luke McLean, 22 Matteo Pratichetti.