England forwards coach Louis Deacon said that a shortage of second rows, with Zoe Stratford, Abbie Ward and Rosie Galligan pregnant and Morwenna Talling and Lili Ives Campion injured, has tested the squad depth and his own coaching philosophy.
“It has been stressful and challenging at times, but in a strange way quite rewarding and enjoyable,” he told BBC Sport.
“I have never had to do anything like this before in my coaching career and I don’t think I will ever have to do anything like it again.
“I am not willing to compromise our training level. Certainly in the forwards, we train very hard – it is difficult and the line-out is quite complex.
“I am not willing to compromise by training at a lower standard or reducing the complexity of our line-out. We have stuck at it and the players [who have come in] have to take a lot of credit.”
Italy lost their opening two matches of the tournament to France and Ireland, but were impressive in an emphatic 41-14 win against Scotland in their final match before the mid-tournament rest week.
Le Azzurre have got progressively closer to England over their most recent Women’s Six Nations encounters, losing by a margin of 74, 63, 48 and 33 points respectively in their matches between 2022 and 2025.
“Thay can go under the radar, we played them last year up in York and it was a sticky game, they caused us problems,” said Deacon.
However, it would be a mammoth shock if, even with home advantage and England lacking a raft of first-choice stars, Italy managed to derail an all-conquering Red Roses side on a run of 36 victories and zeroing in on a final-round showdown with France.
England: Sing; Venner, Jones (c), Rowland, Kildunne; Harrison, L Packer; Clifford, Cokayne, Muir, Burton, Burns, Short, M Packer, Feaunati
Replacements: Powell, Carson, Bern, Lutui, Head, Robinson, Aitchison, Moloney-MacDonald
www.bbc.com
#Red #Roses #Emma #Sing #faces #face #Italy
