England opt for consistency for trip to Italy

Feb 9 (Reuters) - England caretaker rugby coach Stuart Lancaster gave a vote of confidence to his inexperienced group of players on Thursday by naming an unchanged team to face Italy in the Six Nations.

Lancaster has chosen to stick with the side that opened England's defence of the title with a scrappy 13-6 victory over Scotland at Murrayfield last weekend for Saturday's trip to Rome's Stadio Olimpico.

Seven players were capped for the first time last weekend.

"We have decided to leave the starting team the same to allow them more time to gel together and we are expecting our bench to come on and make an impact as they did last week," Lancaster said in a statement.

"Italy will be a very difficult challenge with nearly 700 caps in their starting lineup and it promises to be an outstanding occasion at the sold-out Stadio Olimpico."

Even the replacements named were the same as Lancaster continued with his pledge to build a team that has longevity as England seek to put behind them last year's poor World Cup campaign.

Flanker Chris Robshaw, who will be playing in his third international, continues as captain and will be expected to ensure England maintain their record of never having lost to Italy.

Last year they thumped the Italians 59-13 at Twickenham and while this season's preparations have been far from ideal as England have had to change their training venue due to a frozen pitch at their usual base, Lancaster remains confident.

"We have had a good week in spite of the weather and reflected on the game (against Scotland), reviewed and learnt from it and will look to improve the quality of our performance this week," he said.

In the weekend's other Six Nations matches, France host Ireland and Scotland travel to Wales.

Team: 15-Ben Foden, 14-Chris Ashton, 13-Brad Barritt, 12-Owen Farrell, 11-David Strettle, 10-Charlie Hodgson, 9-Ben Youngs; 8-Phil Dowson, 7-Chris Robshaw, 6-Tom Croft, 5-Tom Palmer, 4-Mouritz Botha, 3-Dan Cole, 2-Dylan Hartley, 1-Alex Corbisiero

Replacements: 16-Rob Webber, 17-Matt Stevens, 18-Geoff Parling, 19-Ben Morgan, 20-Lee Dickson, 21-Jordan Turner-Hall, 22-Mike Brown.