Six Nations 2016: England vs Italy preview - Eddie Jones prepares to change a winning side for Italian job

England head coach wants to build strength in depth for key positions

Loose-head prop Joe Marler is among the players looking over their shoulders (Getty Images)

Six Nations games between England and Italy come in two types: the free-scoring red-rose victory, conducted at high tempo, and the low-scoring Azzurri arm-wrestle, in which things happen at a speed most often associated with continental drift. If Eddie Jones gets his way – and he usually does – this Sunday’s game in Rome will be of the first variety.

To this end, the new head coach is planning to fly in the face of selectorial orthodoxy by tinkering with a winning team. He does not consider this to be a betrayal of principle – “Our policy is to pick the best 23 to win the game, just as we did for the match with Scotland,” he said – but another example of pragmatism in action.

“We’re going to make changes by picking a side more Italy-specific and those changes will involve a number of positions,” he said. “We could conceivably pick a faster forward pack. It’s not related to how people played in Edinburgh at the weekend.

“Our task, which is always the main task, is to win the match on the weekend, but we have to find some depth too – to develop options. So while the travelling group won’t be dissimilar to the 23 we took to Scotland, the batting order might change. We need to go to the next World Cup with three very good options in each position and have a clear idea of who is the first, second and third choice.

“Take George Kruis [the Saracens lock and line-out controller at Murrayfield]. He was outstanding against Scotland – he called the line-out well, jumped and scrummed well. Who’s our second guy? We need to find that out, and then find the third guy. Then, if someone gets injured or is suspended during the World Cup, we’ll know exactly who can do that job.”

True to his word, Jones has retained all 23 of the Murrayfield party, plus two uncapped forwards – the Saracens lock Maro Itoje and the Sale No 8 Josh Beaumont – by way of added extras. Beaumont’s presence suggests that Billy Vunipola, man of the match in Edinburgh by a country mile, is still struggling slightly with an ankle injury, although the coach said he was “100 per cent fine”.

Itoje is an obvious challenger for some kind of role against the Azzurri. Kruis was indeed a stand-out player four days ago – apart from anything else, he scored England’s opening try – but it may be that Jones feels he can hold him back for the Ireland game at Twickenham a fortnight on Saturday and explore other possibilities, especially as Italy are no great shakes in the engine-room department on the evidence of their close-shave contest against France in Paris.

Alternatively, Jones could simply promote Courtney Lawes from the replacement ranks and give Itoje a first taste of senior international rugby as a bench player. It may even be that Kruis remains in place and Joe Launchbury, violently ill on the eve of the Calcutta Cup match and uncharacteristically anonymous as a consequence, takes a back seat.

Among the tight forwards, the loose-head prop Mako Vunipola is piling pressure a-plenty on the incumbent, Joe Marler. As for the back-row formation, there must be a strong temptation to give the Harlequins newcomer Jack Clifford a first start after his encouraging cameo in the final quarter against the Scots, perhaps ahead of the old warhorse James Haskell.

There is even a logic to drafting another fresh face, the Bath midfielder Ollie Devoto, into the starting back line at inside centre – a move that would involved shifting Owen Farrell to outside-half, thereby giving George Ford some time and space to rediscover the best of himself after a traumatic few weeks of free-fall at Bath.

Whatever combination the coach settles on over the next couple of days, he is already sure of one thing: he wants his players to approach this game in a ruthless state of mind. Asked why we felt England have struggled against the Italians down the years – never losing but often making desperately hard work of victory – he was as blunt as a wooden club in his response.

“I think it’s about mindset,” he said. “It’s all about how you go into the game, what attitude you have. If you look at the football analogy of the moment, how are Leicester City, with a team worth £22m, on top of the Premier League? It’s all because of attitude, because of how hard they work for each other. It’s because the sum of the team is greater than the individuals.

“If you go back to England, my job is to bring cohesion, which means people doing the small things well and having a united mindset. If we go to Italy with that in place, we’ll put in a good performance. The sun could be shining, there’ll be a referee who likes attacking rugby, they’ll be selling paninis outside the ground and everyone will be happy. It should be a good occasion, so let’s go there with some intent.”

For their part, the Azzurri have recalled the experienced Treviso back-rower Robert Barbieri to their squad and also drafted in the uncapped Andrea Buondonno, an unfamiliar player from the lower-grade Mogliano team. Buondonno replaces his clubmate, the full-back David Odiete, who suffered an ankle injury during his country’s 23-21 defeat in Paris.

Jacques Brunel, nearing the end of his stint as Italy’s head coach, may have to change things around in the second row of the pack. George Biagi, who started against the French, is struggling with a thigh problem and will be subject to continuous assessment ahead of the England match.