Catt: England still a work in progress

Mike Catt admitted it is "incredible" that England are being talked of in a Grand Slam context just 13 months after Stuart Lancaster took over.

England's average victory over the Azzurri at Twickenham is 48-11 and two years ago they ran in eight tries, with Chris Ashton scoring four in a thumping 59-13 victory.

Catt, the attacking skills coach, would rejoice if England could repeat that performance but he warned against expecting another Twickenham rout.

"When you look at where this team has come from, it is incredible," Catt said.

"A year ago you wouldn't have thought we would be in this position.

"This team is by far the finished article. You are expecting six or seven tries tomorrow, we have only been together for a year.

"That expectation is there and it is brilliant. We are creating it with our performances but international rugby doesn't always go that way.

"You have got to be mindful of the fact that this Italian side is not the Italian side of 10 years ago.

"You want the perfect performance every time. You want to entertain a Twickenham crowd that has been brilliant for us.

"We want to make sure we are clinical, that we have the composure to do what we want to do and what people expect us to do.

"The players just want to perform.

"But this Italian team are a hell of a side at the moment. If we have to kick every penalty to win games we will take that, because that is what the opposition allows you to do."

England displayed a new level to their attacking game as they opened their campaign with a comprehensive victory over Scotland at Twickenham.

The wins against Ireland and France were founded more on character, high-pressure defence, game management and kicking penalties but they also left plenty for England to work on.

In many ways, that is the ideal scenario for Stuart Lancaster's management team ahead of a game against Italy, where all the expectation is for a routine home win.

"We had a really good start against Scotland, played some really good rugby and probably left four or five tries out there," Catt said.

"Against Ireland we kicked ourselves to victory on the back of a really dogged defensive performance. You can't underestimate what France brought.

"They were both massive, massive wins. But we spoke after the France game about our accuracy and the players were pretty harsh on themselves.

"This is a massive eight days for these guys."

England have made five changes for the game, with Toby Flood replacing the injured Owen Farrell at fly-half and Danny Care given a start at scrum-half.

Up front, James Haskell has returned at blindside flanker and Mako Vunipola will make his first Test start at loosehead prop with Tom Youngs at hooker.

England team: A Goode (Saracens); C Ashton (Saracens), M Tuilagi (Leicester), B Barritt (Saracens), M Brown (Harlequins); T Flood (Leicester), D Care (Harlequins); M Vunipola (Saracens), T Youngs (Leicester), D Cole (Leicester), J Launchbury (Wasps), G Parling (Leicester), J Haskell (Wasps), C Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), T Wood (Northampton).

Replacements: D Hartley (Northampton), D Wilson (Bath), J Marler (Harlequins), C Lawes (Northampton), T Croft (Leicester), B Youngs (Leicester), F Burns (Gloucester), B Twelvetrees (Gloucester).

Italy team: A Masi; G Venditti, G Canale, G Garcia, L McLean; L Orquera, E Gori; A de Marchi, L Ghiraldini, M Castrogiovanni, Q Geldenhuys, J Furno, A Zanni, R Barbieri, S Parisse.

Replacements: D Giazzon, A Lo Cicero, L Cittadini, A Pavanello, F Minto, S Favaro, T Botes, T Benvenuti.