England’s fourth game of the 2025 Six Nations Championship and third successive match at home welcomes Italy to Twickenham.
Having revived their title aspirations with that last-gasp 26-25 victory over France in their second match, they will host Scotland on February 22 in the annual stramash, desperate to kill Scotland’s winning run after four defeats and capture the Calcutta Cup for the first time since 2021.
England finally prevailed at Twickenham on February 8 in Le Crunch after seven defeats against top-tier sides by virtue of Fin Smith’s composure at fly-half and finally managing to maintain their physical and mental intensity for the full 80 minutes.
In Rome, Italy defeated Wales 22-15, their second victory in a row over Warren Gatland’s beleaguered side and third in four years. Italy kicked off their campaign with a 31-19 defeat at Murrayfield in the Cuttitta Cup clash and before going to Twickenham will host France for the Giuseppe Garibaldi Trophy match in Rome on February 23, still buoyant after last year’s draw in Lille.
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 taking on France in Dublin at 2.15pm and Scotland v Wales 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. The 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 takes 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?
England and Italy will not name their revised squads for the match on March 9 until after the third-round fixtures a fortnight before but Steve Borthwick is hopeful that at least George Furbank and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso may be available after the former broke his arm and the latter injured his shoulder in December.
Leicester scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet and Harlequins No 8 Alex Dombrandt are also close to making comebacks after injury ruled them out of Borthwick’s initial squad.
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.
