Italy meet the reigning world champions looking to build on an impressive - if ultimately unsuccessful - performance in their opening Six Nations match against Ireland.

Berbiziers side pushed the Irish all the way before finally succumbing 26-16 at Lansdowne Road to suffer a defeat in the Frenchmans first Six Nations match in charge of Italy.

However, Italy return to Rome with their confidence in tact and Berbizier is hoping a fanatical following at the Stadio Flaminio can inspire his troops to an even better performance against the English, who annihilated last years Grand Slam winners Wales 47-13 in their opening match.

It will be the first home match of a squad capable of playing with the same spirit that excited the 4,000 Italians at Lansdowne Road, Berbizier said.

We should not consider the England match to be a dangerous one, but instead see it as a major occasion, a pleasure for the fans, who will have to be the 16th man on the field for the duration of the match on Saturday.

We are going to play against a great team, but we must keep going like we did in Dublin.
Regarding their performance against the Irish, Berbizier feels they might easily have been celebrating a shock victory, but the former France coach is determined not to dwell on what might have been.

It has been the weekend of the small teams. Like the Scottish, we were ready to record a great result in Dublin. We took part in a great game, but instead of matching Scotland, the result went against us, he said.

But this is the beauty of rugby, sometimes you lose even if you deserve better.

We speak for the last time about the game against Ireland, added Berbizier at Tuesdays press conference in Rome. From today, all our attentions should be focussed on Saturdays game at the Flaminio against England.