England caretaker rugby coach Stuart Lancaster gave a vote of confidence to his inexperienced group of players 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 for Saturday's (February 11) trip to Rome's Stadio Olimpico.
Seven players were capped for the first time last weekend.
"We've decided to stick with the same team as you've seen," Lancaster told reporters at the team's Surrey training base.
"We want to give this team a chance to gel, a chance to work together. Obviously following the weekend we were pleased with lots of aspects of the performance but we recognise that we've still got quite a lot of work to do."
Even the replacements named were the same as Lancaster continued with his pledge to build a team that has longevity as England seek to put behind them last year's poor World Cup campaign.
Flanker Chris Robshaw, who will be playing in 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 but Lancaster expected the Azzuri to back themselves to turn that sorry scoreline around.
"I think they'll definitely see this as a huge opportunity to beat England," he admitted.
"As you saw last year, they beat the losers, France, the team that lost in the World Cup final, at home. So it's well within their capabilities to beat any Six Nations side.
"So we need to make sure that we deal with the passion and the emotion that I'm sure the Italians will bring. The physicality, the experience, the set piece. But also impose our game on them. And make sure we go there and try and play with tempo and pace and put them under pressure as well."
Number eight Phil Dowson was a power on defence in England's opening win over Scotland but told Reuters his team needed to raise the level higher.
"It's my second cap and I want to kick on and as a group of players we want to kick on and show that we're not just a defensive side, that we can play with the ball in hand as well," he said.
"So yeah, it's a huge challenge, we know how good they are, but we're more than willing to take it head on."
Veteran flyhalf Charlie Hodgson will again steer the England ship in the number ten shirt and knows all about facing Italian opposition having done so on a number of occasions.
In an interview with Reuters, Hodgson said the Italians were a completely different proposition at home compared to when away, whether at club or international level.
"I guess we've experienced from a club's point of view, when we're at home to Treviso (Italian club side), they are a very different animal when you go away and play them there. Very, very passionate, very physical and the crowd get very much behind them.
"So we know we're in for a tough game. They're a team full of world class players, Castrogiovanni, Parrise. Those guys are talisman for them and we're looking forward to playing against them."
Rome's famed Stadio Olimpico will host the match, marking the first time a Six Nations match in the Italian capital has not been held at the Stadio Flaminio.
Seven-two thousand people are expected to fill the Stadio Olimpico, a prospect that excited the England team.
"It's outstanding to be in that sort of arena," a beaming Dowson said.
"We saw last week with the atmosphere there (Murrayfield) and I'd imagine this week it'll be no different.
"72 thousand shows how far Italian rugby has come and how popular it is over there.
"So just looking forward to seeing the stadium and getting involved and hopefully sampling that atmosphere."
In the weekend's other Six Nations matches, France host Ireland and Scotland travel to Wales.
England Team: 15-Ben Foden, 14-Chris Ashton, 13-Brad Barritt, 12-Owen Farrell, 11-David Strettle, 10-Charlie Hodgson, 9-Ben Youngs; 8-Phil Dowson, 7-Chris Robshaw, 6-Tom Croft, 5-Tom Palmer, 4-Mouritz Botha, 3-Dan Cole, 2-Dylan Hartley, 1-Alex Corbisiero
Replacements: 16-Rob Webber, 17-Matt Stevens, 18-Geoff Parling, 19-Ben Morgan, 20-Lee Dickson, 21-Jordan Turner-Hall, 22-Mike Brown.
Reuters