England head coach Stuart Lancaster made four tactical and one injury-enforced changes on Friday to his side for this weekend's Six Nations test against Italy at Twickenham.
In the front row, Mako Vunipola, the giant 22-year-old New Zealand-born prop, whose father Fe'ao captained Tonga and played against England in the 1999 World Cup, will make his first start as a reward for some dynamic displays off the bench having won all his previous seven caps as a replacement.
There is a new halfback combination as Toby Flood starts at fly-half in place of the injured Owen Farrell and Danny Care regains the scrumhalf jersey from Ben Youngs.
James Haskell returns to blindside flanker in place of Courtney Lawes and Tom Youngs comes back in at hooker for Dylan Hartley, reversing the switch made for the France game.
England trained in wet conditions at their plush Surrey training base on Friday. It could serve them well with similar weather expected at Twickenham on Sunday.
There are hopes England will deliver on an expected demolition job of the Italians but that could prove unrealistic as the visitors are traditionally forward orientated, a strength that will be improved by inclement weather.
England have crushed the Azzurri every time they have faced them at Twickenham and have an average winning margin of almost 35 points from their six previous Six Nations meetings there.
Another victory on Sunday will leave them one win - away to Wales next Saturday - from their first grand slam since 2003.
