Six Nations, England vs Italy preview and suggested bets: Steve Borthwick hoping to secure first win

Steve Borthwick is hunting his first victory as England head coach having replaced Eddie Jones in December.

And he has shown his displeasure at losing to Scotland on home soil last weekend, dropping their most-capped men's player Ben Youngs from the squad and Marcus Smith to the bench.

Youngs produced a poor performance off the bench in the Calcutta Cup loss to Gregor Townsend's Scots, and the 33-year-old will not get a chance to make amends on Sunday.

Having started the last eight Tests together, Smith has been demoted to the bench to accommodate Owen Farrell's selection at fly-half instead of inside centre.

Borthwick completed a significant overhaul of the midfield by replacing Joe Marchant with Henry Slade at outside centre while Ollie Lawrence fills the vacancy at 12.

Slade has recovered from the hip injury that forced him to sit out the 29-23 Calcutta Cup defeat in round one while the hard running Lawrence is promoted off the bench.

Only one change has been made to the pack with turnover specialist Jack Willis replacing Ben Curry at openside flanker for his first start since suffering a horrific knee injury in the same fixture two years ago.

Henry Arundell is poised to win his fourth cap after being named on the bench where he will provide back three cover, the ankle injury that forced him to miss the autumn now fully healed.

Borthwick has his hands full trying to raise the morale of a squad whose confidence slowly drained away towards the end of the Jones era.

And Jones has admitted as much, saying: "They're going through that difficult period now where they're trying to get that balance right in their game.

"But Steve will fix it. There's no doubt he'll fix it. And keep blaming me. That's all right, I've got a pretty strong back and pretty strong shoulders to absorb that."

England have good memories of facing this opponent, however, having beaten them 33-0 in Rome last year.

Smith was named player of the match in Rome, scoring a try and four conversions; two tries from Jamie George, and one apiece from replacements Elliot Daly and Kyle Sinckler made sure Jones' team got their first win of the 2022 tournament.

But Smith will not hog the headlines this time, with Farrell more likely to be the man who inspires them to a victory which should be close on the scoreboard.

Italy showed they are no mugs in the 29-24 defeat to Grand Slam champions France, however, and they could be worth backing in the handicap market.

Borthwick is aware of the challenge his charges face against the Italians, saying: "We welcome an exciting and in-form Italy team to Twickenham on. We recognise and respect the very real threat they pose and we are preparing accordingly.

"Notwithstanding the disappointment of last weekend's Calcutta Cup result, we know that in a very short space of time positive steps have been taken towards the manner and style in which we want to play our rugby.

"We are at the start of what is a completely new cycle of English rugby. The implementation of new systems does take time and the squad is showing themselves to be hungry to deliver the sort of performance that we know they are capable of.

"From the squad I have selected a team for Sunday's fixture that I believe is best placed to meet the specific challenges that Italy will bring.

"It is a selection of players whose form, individual strengths and combined qualities suit the way we want to play against Italy, in what we anticipate will be another hard-fought and entertaining spectacle."

England 23 Scotland 29

Italy 24 France 29

England by 8-14 points

Italy +20 points handicap

Owen Farrell MoM