Lancaster began his reign with a gritty 13-6 victory over Scotland in England’s first win at Murrayfield for eight years.

And he has resisted the temptation to shuffle the deck ahead of the trip to Rome, where they have won their previous encounters by five and four points respectively, keeping faith with the same starting XV and bench.

It means the all-Saracens midfield trio of Charlie Hodgson, Owen Farrell and Brad Barritt will resume their partnership while Northampton No.8 Phil Dowson held off a strong challenge from Scarlets’ Ben Morgan, who impressed off the bench at Murrayfield.

With seven players making their debuts last week and a further uncapped player on the bench in Wasps’ Rob Webber, England’s collective experience will be dwarfed by Italy’s.

But Lancaster felt continuity was the best option as the defending champions look to make it back-to-back wins.

“We have had a good week in spite of the weather and reflected on the game, reviewed and learnt from it and will look to improve the quality of our performance this week,” he said.

“We have decided to leave the starting team the same to allow them more time to gel together and we are expecting our bench to come on and make an impact as they did last week.

“Italy will be a very difficult challenge with nearly 700 caps in their starting line-up and it promises to be an outstanding occasion at the sold-out Stadio Olimpico.”

England
15. Ben Foden (Northampton Saints)
14. Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints)
13. Brad Barritt (Saracens)
12. Owen Farrell (Saracens)
11. David Strettle (Saracens)
10. Charlie Hodgson (Saracens)
9. Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
1. Alex Corbisiero (London Irish)
2. Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
3. Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
4. Mouritz Botha (Saracens)
5. Tom Palmer (Stade Français)
6. Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers)
7. Chris Robshaw (Harlequins, capt)
8. Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints)

Replacements
16. Rob Webber (London Wasps)
17. Matt Stevens (Saracens)
18. Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers)
19. Ben Morgan (Scarlets)
20. Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints)
21. Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins)
22. Mike Brown (Harlequins)