With France falling victim to the Azzurri for the first time in Championship history last year, a trip to Rome bears all the hallmarks of a huge banana skin for Lancaster's inexperienced team.

Both sides will be playing in the intense atmosphere of the Stadio Olimpico for the first time and England possess just over a third of the total caps possessed by an Italian side, who have been given more licence to play under new coach Jacques Brunel.

Chief beneficiary of Italy's new attacking outlook is fly-half Kris Burton who promised to take the game to England from the off at the 82,000 seater stadium.

He said: "It's our objective to attack and hold the ball but we also have to choose when to play the tactical game.

"I hope this week we can show that we can attack more and that last week was not a one-off.

"We hope to show this week that we're an attacking team and we can be a threat.

"We have to be more aggressive with the ball in hand, be explosive on the ball, make early decisions in attack and put them under pressure

"If you look at any international side their back three have all got pace, the idea is to limit how much they can play.

"Obviously they're going to be physical, they've always got a rush defence or if they vary their defence you've got to vary the game, see how it goes and make the right decisions at the right times."

Both teams keep changes to a minimum with experienced duo Marco Bortolami and Gonzalo Canale returning for Italy while Lancaster names an identical 22 to the one that came out 13-6 winners in Scotland.

Even when games were at the more intimate Stadio Flamino, England have never found trips to Rome enjoyable affairs winning their last two matches by five and four points respectively.

At Twickenham last year it was a different story when winger Chris Ashton ran in a record-equally four tries in their 59-13 victory.

But while Ashton and his back-three colleagues might be associated with attacking flair, the Northampton winger is adamant discipline is the new buzz word in the England ranks.

"It's a mind-set in the team now, with people realising the impact it can have on a game if we keep giving away penalties. It is massive for us," Ashton said. "At the World Cup it cost us a lot and in the end it is what got us knocked out, basically. It is something we have focused on a lot.

"Sometimes when you are involved with the team, you can't see that [behaviour off the pitch could influence performance on it]. Sometimes it takes someone like Stu to come in from the outside and realise that."

Lancaster added: "These are the types of things that the players talked about. We want the players to take ownership of the on-field discipline and off-field discipline through the leadership group and you can begin to see that happening.

"If we had been ill-disciplined at the weekend, we probably would have conceded four or five penalties in kickable range, which ultimately would have led to Scotland winning the game. We want to see a repeat of that discipline against Italy this weekend. We don't want to give cheap penalties away by going offside or from early scrum engagements."