England’s fourth game of the 2025 Six Nations Championship and third successive match at home welcomes Italy to Twickenham.
England have so far played three, won two, with their only defeat coming to Ireland, 27-22, in round one. However, both their subsequent wins have come by just one point – 26-25 against France and, most recently, 16-15 against Scotland.
Italy will be looking to bounce back after being humbled 73-24 by France in Rome. Click here for the latest team news.
When is England v Italy?
England host Italy on Sunday, March 9. The match will kick-off at 3pm (GMT).
The other round-four matches both take place the day before. Ireland play France in Dublin at 2.15pm and Scotland v Wales is at Murrayfield at 4.45pm.
Where is England v Italy taking place?
At Twickenham, or as it is now known, the Allianz Stadium. The match will be England’s first Sunday home game in the championship since hosting Italy in 2023
How to watch England v Italy on TV?
It will be on ITV1. BBC and ITV once again share coverage of the Six Nations in the UK: ITV has the rights for the home games of England, Ireland, France and Italy while the BBC has all the matches at Murrayfield and the Principality Stadium.
Who is the referee?
Ireland’s Andrew Brace has the whistle for England’s home match against Italy and has Craig Evans from Wales and France’s Luc Ramos running the line. South Africa’s Marius Jonker will perform TMO duties and Mike Adamson from the Scottish Rugby Union is the Foul Play Review Officer.
Brace has a truly cosmopolitan rugby background – he was born in Wales, went to school there and in Ireland, university in England and played internationally for Belgium. The former Munster community rugby officer was the man in the middle for England’s defeats by the world champion Springboks last November and Scotland at Murrayfield in the 2024 championship.
What is the team news?
Full back George Furbank is unlikely to return before the end of the Six Nations Championship, sparing head coach Steve Borthwick an awkward decision on whether to jettison Marcus Smith.
England had hoped that Furbank, who is recovering from a broken arm, would be available for the back end of their campaign which concludes at home to Italy and a final round trip to Wales.
Second row George Martin, who pulled out of England’s 16-15 victory with a knee injury, is expected to be available while there are no immediate concerns over back-rowers Tom Curry and Tom Willis who departed the hard-fought win with a dead leg and concussion respectively.
However Borthwick indicated that the Northampton playmaker Furbank is a long shot to feature, meaning Smith is likely to continue in the No 15 shirt. “Furbs’ arm is healing well,” Borthwick said. “It’s going to be very, very tight to play in the championship given he’s not played, but he’s on track healing-wise.”
After acting as England’s first choice fly half for much of the past 12 months, Marcus Smith has found himself usurped by namesake Fin Smith in his preferred position. In Furbank’s absence, Freddie Steward started at full back in the opening round defeat against Ireland before Marcus Smith was moved there in the past two victories over France and Scotland to mixed results.
While England ground out another one-point victory to keep their Championship hopes alive, their kick-heavy tactics drew occasional boos from the crowd at the Allianz Stadium. Winger Tommy Freeman, who scored England’s only try to Scotland’s three, says he understands the frustration from the crowd.
“Our strategy is either to go long and find some grass and keep them down in that end, and then hopefully get the ball even further up or off transition,” Freeman said. “Or we go to that contestable kick, and hope you’ll get some good rewards off of having a loose ball and hopefully getting some ball back and then unstructured defences off the back of it. So there’s a strategy to it. We understand it can get too much.”
Meanwhile England will head into the Autumn Nations Series campaign without an extra training week after the Rugby Football Union chose to stage a money-spinning extra Test match against Australia. The match against the Wallabies will be staged on November 1 leading into their originally scheduled Tests against Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina.
As the Australia match is being staged outside the international window, Borthwick will lose the typical one-week training camp he holds in Girona, Spain leading into campaigns.
Italy will have prop Mirco Spagnolo available for their last three matches after completing a five-week ban imposed for the red card he received for a ‘croc-roll’ during Benetton’s victory over Zebre in December.
England’s current squad
Forwards: Fin Baxter, Ollie Chessum, Arthur Clark, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Chandler Cunningham-South, Ben Curry, Tom Curry, Theo Dan, Ben Earl, Ellis Genge, Joe Heyes, Ted Hill, Maro Itoje (c), Curtis Langdon, George Martin, Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Henry Pollock, Bevan Rodd, Will Stuart, Tom Willis.
Backs: Oscar Beard, Elliot Daly, Fraser Dingwall, George Ford, Tommy Freeman, Ollie Lawrence, Alex Mitchell, Cadan Murley, Raffi Quirke, Harry Randall, Tom Roebuck, Henry Slade, Ollie Sleightholme, Fin Smith, Marcus Smith, Ben Spencer, Freddie Steward.
Italy’s current squad
Forwards: Simone Ferrari, Riccardo Faveretto, Danilo Fischetti, Federico Ruzza, Marco Riccioni, Lorenzo Cannone, Luca Rizzoli, Alessandro Izekor, Giosue Zilocchi, Michele Lamaro, Gianmarco Nicotera, Ross Vintcent, Niccolò Cannone, Manuel Zuliani, Dino Lamb.
Backs: Alessandro Garbisi, Juan Ignacio Brex, Martin Page-Relo, Tommaso Menoncello, Stephen Varney, Ange Capuozzo, Tommaso Allen, Matt Gallagher, Paolo Garbisi, Simone Gesi, Leonardo Marin, Monty Ioane, Jacopo Trulla.
When did England and Italy last win the Six Nations?
England last won the Six Nations in 2020, Italy have never won the title nor beaten England in 25 Six Nations meetings.
What was the score last year?
England won 27-24 at Stadio Olimpico in 2024 though Italy, in their finest campaign yet, were 10-0 and 17-8 up in the first half before George Ford’s boot and their own line-out fragility took the game away from them.
