6N: Italy hopes nosedive as English injuries clear up

So much for England being depleted for its tilt at a record third straight outright Six Nations title.

“The magic sponge has done well for us,” England coach Eddie Jones says, with a wry smile, after naming a close-to-full-strength team for the opening match of its title defense against Italy on Sunday.

A slew of injuries — there were 13 senior players out at one stage last month — was the primary factor behind Jones saying England shouldn’t be cast as the tournament favorite.

Even last week, Jones was preparing to be without influential players such as Chris Robshaw, Mike Brown, and potentially Maro Itoje for the trip to Rome. There was barely a mention of center Ben Te’o, who hadn’t played a competitive game since October because of ankle trouble.

It came as a surprise, then, when Jones was able to name all four of those players in his team and also another recently injured player, Jack Nowell, on the bench.

The chances of Italy gaining a first ever win over England — at the 24th time of asking — suddenly took a nosedive.

“Maybe Sunday after the match it will be a difficult night,” Italy coach Conor O’Shea says, “but we’re preparing matches to win them and the great thing about sport is that anything can happen.”

When it comes to the Italians, Jones knows this all too well.

In this fixture last year, Italy used a tactic dubbed “The Fox” at Twickenham to bamboozle England by frequently not contesting the breakdown. That freed up their players to get beyond the usual ruck line and block any passes behind the tackle area.

So bewildered were England’s players that they were asking French referee Romain Poite how to counter the unusual approach, and they were only two points ahead with 12 minutes to go before going on to win 36-15.

An angry Jones, who told his players before the match to “take Italy to the cleaners,” said after the match Italy played against the spirit of rugby.

“We’ll see what they throw up this time,” Jones says about Italy this week when asked if his players were expecting the unexpected.

The topic has come up frequently in and around the England camp this week, but the match dubbed “Ruckgate” hasn’t been mentioned by the Azzurri, at least not in public.

Italy will need to come up with something special to end its drought against the English. The best it can realistically hope for is keeping the score down.

England’s big absentees are injured No. 8s Billy Vunipola and Nathan Hughes, while flanker James Haskell is suspended. Otherwise, the big guns are all there, led by Dylan Hartley as England starts its bid to become the first team in the tournament’s 135-year history to win it outright for three straight years.

Jones urges his team to “play with intensity, aggression” and to “physically intimidate Italy.”

Italy has lost its last 12 Six Nations matches and is looking to avoid finishing last for the third straight year.

O’Shea’s team is young and inexperienced, with seven Italians making their first appearance in the Six Nations. After nearly two years out with injury, lock Alessandro Zanni will become the seventh Italian to reach 100 international appearances.

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Lineups:

Italy: Matteo Minozzi, Tommaso Benvenuti, Tommaso Boni, Tommaso Castello, Mattia Bellini, Tommaso Allan, Marcello Violi; Sergio Parisse (captain), Renato Giammarioli, Sebastian Negri, Dean Budd, Alessandro Zanni, Simone Ferrari, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Andrea Lovotti. Reserves: Luca Bigi, Nicola Quaglio, Tiziano Pasquali, George Biagi, Maxime Mbandà, Edoardo Gori, Carlo Canna, Jayden Hayward.

England: Mike Brown, Anthony Watson, Ben Te’o, Owen Farrell, Jonny May, George Ford, Ben Youngs; Sam Simmonds, Chris Robshaw, Courtney Lawes, Maro Itoje, Joe Launchbury, Dan Cole, Dylan Hartley (captain), Mako Vunipola. Reserves: Jamie George, Alec Hepburn, Harry Williams, George Kruis, Sam Underhill, Danny Care, Jonathan Joseph, Jack Nowell.