{"id":9587,"date":"2026-03-03T10:22:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T10:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=9587"},"modified":"2026-03-03T10:22:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T10:22:52","slug":"six-nations-2026-england-team-v-italy-set-to-have-sweeping-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=9587","title":{"rendered":"Six Nations 2026: England team v Italy set to have sweeping changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Head coach Steve Borthwick is set to make sweeping changes to his backline as he attempts to revive England&#8217;s Six Nations campaign in Italy on Saturday.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Two injuries and one positional change could mean not one position in the backline is filled by the same player as in the last game against Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Northampton&#8217;s Fin Smith is in line to start at fly-half in place of George Ford while Gloucester&#8217;s Seb Atkinson is poised to be England&#8217;s inside centre in Rome.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">With outside centre Ollie Lawrence ruled out with a knee problem, Tommy Freeman is likely to move in from the wing and resume his midfield role. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That means Tom Roebuck is set to return to the starting line-up to fill in for Freeman, with Cadan Murley tipped for a start on the other wing in place of Henry Arundell.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">George Furbank was expected to come in at full-back, but instead Marcus Smith and Elliot Daly are thought to be in the running to supplant Freddie Steward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Leicester full-back was replaced at the end of the first half as England fell behind en route to an eventual 42-21 defeat by Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">With Alex Mitchell injured, Ben Spencer is understood to be the starting scrum-half.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">England centurion Danny Care says utility back Daly&#8217;s experience could be vital in a high-pressure game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He&#8217;s got a big left boot,&#8221; Care told Rugby Union Weekly of Daly, who has won 74 caps for England and toured three times with the British and Irish Lions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He&#8217;s got a great aerial game as well. He&#8217;s absolutely been there and done it before in the biggest of Test matches.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Head coach Steve Borthwick is set to make sweeping changes to his backline as he attempts to revive England&#8217;s Six Nations campaign in Italy on Saturday. Two injuries and one positional change could mean not one position in the backline is filled by the same player as in the last game against Ireland. Northampton&#8217;s Fin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}