Italy vs England, Six Nations: Paul Gustard refuses to take Italian challenge lightly

If Eddie Jones clearly expects this weekend’s Six Nations meeting with Italy in Rome to be the softest England international match of the year – the new head coach has been talking about giving the Azzurri “a hiding” while planning changes to a winning side – two of his fellow think-tankers may be just a little more reluctant to shout the odds.

Both Paul Gustard, the defence strategist, and Steve Borthwick, the forwards coach, know what it is to lose an England representative game against the Italians, having been caught up in a 22-21 defeat at second-string “A team” level in Naples some 14 years ago. If this puts them in an embarrassingly small minority of red-rose types, it also sharpens their mood ahead of Sunday’s contest at Stadio Olimpico. One low-profile failure against the sick men of European rugby can just about be forgiven. A second, headline-grabbing one would constitute a hanging offence.

“I don’t remember much about that game, but I remember losing,” muttered Gustard yesterday, through gritted teeth. “If you start looking too far ahead, start dreaming about other things, you can trip up fast. There are a lot of good players in Italy, playing in competitive tournaments, and they ran France very close last weekend. It’s also true to say some of them are unfamiliar to us. We have our analysts delving into the Italian leagues for evidence, but I think we know as much as we’re going to know already. They’ll pose different threats to the ones we faced in Scotland.”

It seems those different threats will be confronted by different England personnel. Certainly up front, where the Harlequins flanker Jack Clifford, fast-tracked to an international debut off the bench at Murrayfield five days ago, is expected to start the match and the Saracens lock Maro Itoje, probably the most talked about uncapped forward in world rugby, is a strong tip to feature in the 23-man match-day squad.

Clifford was included in the wider training party as an open-side flanker – a clear sign of Jones’ limited choices in this crucial position, given that the youngster is seen, not least by his more experienced clubmates at the Twickenham Stoop, as a natural No 8 with blind-side capabilities.

James Haskell tackled himself to a standstill as a makeshift No 7 against the Scots and was praised to the high heavens by the boss as a consequence. It would make sense for Jones to rest the Wasps captain this weekend in readiness for the meeting with Ireland in London a fortnight on Saturday, but he may also have considered shifting Haskell across the back row and picking Clifford ahead of Chris Robshaw, the former England captain whom the newcomer replaced in Edinburgh.

Itoje’s form in Premiership and European Champions Cup rugby has been on the scintillating side of spectacular, but Jones, hardly one to let the great unwashed pick his Test teams for him, has taken great delight in holding him back. The coach continues to tease and tantalise on the subject, but Gustard, who worked with the World Cup-winning Under-20s captain at Saracens, is clear in his own mind that England have a special talent in their midst.

“Maro has had a stellar season for Saracens,” the assistant coach acknowledged. “He’s matured a lot – taken on a lot more responsibility in terms of his line-out skills and his leadership. He’s very diligent as a professional, almost Borthwick-like. He’s athletic, he’s mobile, he’s a modern-day forward who, I imagine, can play in both the second row and the back row at Test level.

“How careful do you have to be in exposing him to the next step up? The fact that we selected him in our 33-man training squad – there were some very good players who didn’t make that – and then included him in the elite group shows the confidence we have in him. At some stage, we have to back that up and give him an opportunity to take his club form into the Test arena.”

Over the last year, virtually every coach in England with a functioning pair of eyes has remarked on Itoje’s ability to cope with fresh sets of demands. Does this make the 21-year-old Londoner a genuine rarity? “I think it probably does,” Gustard responded. “I think the very good players make their transitions with aplomb and, hopefully, Maro is one of those very good ones who come along once in a while – a Paul O’Connell or a Martin Johnson.

“What were my impressions of him when he emerged at Saracens? My first thought was: ‘Shit, he’s big for a young kid.’ He had this massive wingspan, a huge physical range. We were so impressed when he was 17 or 18 by how physically mature he was in terms of being in contact. It’s one thing looking big; it’s another translating that density into collisions against even bigger people. He did it straight off.”

One player certain to start in Rome, the Cornwall-born Exeter wing Jack Nowell, is every bit as happy in contact, even if he is constructed on a more modest scale. The man also has a sense of humour. Aware of the head coach’s sharp comments about England’s fitness, or lack of it, for Test rugby at its fastest and most demanding, he cast an educated eye over a tray of bacon rolls and said: “I haven’t had one of those for a year. But then, I’m more of a pasty person.”

Then, far more seriously, he addressed the issue at hand. “We want to be seen as a non-stop, 100 per cent team,” he said. “Maybe Eddie looked at the Scotland game and saw a drop-off. It’s not as if we’re all unfit and we’re lying on our backs being sick after 50 minutes, but he wants us to be going really strong between 70 and 80 minutes. If you can outdo your opponents with your fitness, it’s a massive thing.”