England name unchanged side to face Italy in Six Nations
England have named an unchanged starting XV and bench for Saturday's Six Nations match against Italy.
Head coach Stuart Lancaster has retained the same starting XV and bench after Wales were dispatched 21-16 in Cardiff in the Championship opener, a result that saw England replace Ireland as new title favourites.
Lancaster had hoped to pick Geoff Parling as specialist second row cover among the replacements at the expense of Nick Easter or Tom Croft, only for the Leicester lock to suffer a setback in his recovery from a knee injury.
"It's always good to be able to name an unchanged team and to build some consistency. We did the same last year after France heading into the Scotland game," Lancaster said.
England team to face Italy in Saturday's Six Nations match at Twickenham:
M Brown (Harlequins); A Watson (Bath), J Joseph (Bath), L Burrell (Northampton Saints), J May (Gloucester); G Ford (Bath), B Youngs (Leicester Tigers); J Marler (Harlequins), D Hartley (Northampton Saints), D Cole (Leicester Tigers), D Attwood (Bath), G Kruis (Saracens), J Haskell (Wasps), C Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), B Vunipola (Saracens).Replacements: T Youngs (Leicester Tigers), M Vunipola (Saracens), K Brookes (Newcastle Falcons), N Easter (Harlequins), T Croft (Leicester Tigers), R, Wigglesworth (Saracens), D Cipriani (Sale Sharks), B Twelvetrees (Gloucester).