Italy braced for England backlash

Italy assistant coach Carlo Orlandi is expecting England to raise their game when they travel to Rome for their second match of the RBS 6 Nations Championship this weekend.

England were left reeling after suffering a 26-19 defeat against Wales last Saturday.

And Orlandi fears the Azzurri will feel the full force of the World Cup finalists’ wrath on Sunday.

“The English will be wounded and will want to make up for it,” Orlandi told Italian sports daily 'Corriere dello Sport'.

“We’re expecting a strong reaction on their part.

“On my part, I cannot be satisfied with a defeat, we have a solid base on which to build on and the English pack is less mobile than ours.”

England’s defeat at Twickenham came at a great cost to coach Brian Ashton, who has been rocked by a quadruple injury setback.

Gloucester centre Mike Tindall is set to miss the rest of the tournament while wing David Strettle and flankers Lewis Moody and Tom Rees are also out of the Italy game.

But Orlandi’s fellow assistant Jean-Philippe Cariat believes England have strong enough replacements to trouble Italy, who fell to a 16-11 loss to Ireland in their Six Nations opener at Croke Park.

“They have such a legacy of players that often the reserves have so great a desire to prove their worth that they play even more determined than the regular starters,” Cariat said.

“But this game will be all about discipline – we can’t let [Jonny] Wilkinson have a kick.

“I’ve also followed Danny Cipriani at his club, London Wasps. He’s a great attacker who creates a lot of space for his team-mates.

“But we’ll change little. Attention, discipline and aggression will be key to our game.”