The one comforting thought for England fans still reeling from the deluge of disaster visited upon Twickenham last November is that at least it's only Italy turning up tomorrow in the opening RBS Six Nations match.

Excuses could be made for losing to Australia, South Africa and New Zealand but messing up against the weakest team in the competition is unthinkable.

The boos that rained down from the Twickenham stands last November highlighted the growing frustration amongst the faithful that not even the arrival of Martin Johnson as the new team manager could appease.

Now, having proved that he is not the Messiah, Johnson has to deliver something worth applauding on the Twickenham turf he made such a frightening prospect for visiting teams. Unfortunately, Fortress Twickenham was left in ruins by those Southern Hemisphere hordes. Now it is the Romans at the gates - and they need to be taken seriously.

England are a team looking for an identity while the Italians know exactly where they stand in the great rugby scheme. They have a world-class pack and a back division of limited skills who can tackle fiercely and they are taking collective heart from England's recent problems. These have been compounded by the need to drop Danny Cipriani and the ankle injury suffered by scrum-half Danny Care.

Instead of Cipriani's instinctive skills, England have opted for the trusty boot of Andy Goode, while Care's place has gone to Harry Ellis, a former team-mate of Goode's at Leicester, who has played just one match this year - for England A against Portugal last Friday night - because he was handed a six-week ban for a dangerous tackle on Dan Carter in the Heineken Cup match at Perpignan.

It's a big ask for Ellis to recapture his Test form after such a short period of action, but at least he knows more about playing scrum half than opposite number Mauro Bergamasco.

In what could be either the most foolish gamble in Six Nations history, or the most inspired selection ever made by a head coach, Nick Mallett has responded to an injury crisis at No9 by converting flanker Bergamasco into a half-back.

As England captain Steve Borthwick noted, it does give Italy nine forwards on the pitch - which is handy if you are going to play an extremely limited game plan - but if Italy intend to get the ball out to their backs it could be a potential disaster.

The Azzuri are not known for razor sharp passing at the best of times and when the first effort is delivered by a flanker masquerading as a scrum half, the entire England team could have chased down the opposite Italian wing by the time the ball gets to him.

England are going to target Bergamasco in the hope of fracturing that link between 9 and 10 and force the Italians to boot away possession.

When they achieved this aim against the Southern Hemisphere nations in November, it resulted in aimless kick and chase tactics from England as they shied away from keeping the ball in hand despite fielding a back three of outstanding pace in Paul Sackey, Delon Armitage and Ugo Monye.

Monye is now injured, which has brought Mark Cueto on to the left wing, and his first instinct is to kick. However, like recalled centre Mike Tindall, at least Cueto chases his kicks with real conviction and England should be technically more proficient if it becomes a battle of the kickers.

This is an aspect of Goode's game that has earned him a recall from France and while the hair is more wild, and the tongue inflected by his now fluent French, you cannot hide the fact that at heart he is an English No10 from the old school.

That means playing for territory is his main skill, kicking short to expose the rush defence is another trait, while passing the ball to fellow backs is firmly at No3 on the list of priorities.

With England's forwards having spent their entire training camp in Portugal last week being drilled in the art of producing quicker ball, Goode should be given more time and space than the pack allowed Cipriani. All too often, Cipriani had to use his under-powered kicking game because the ball had been won so slowly the opposition defence was lined up and daring him to run.

England have to find ways of pulling, carrying, barging and rucking - if allowed - to generate the kind of momentum that fractures defences and keeps a team on the front foot.

Italy under coach Mallett aim to batter you up front, expose any weaknesses and then kick as many points as possible while nicking the odd try - their main problem is maintaining this kind of challenge for 80 minutes.

England have to win tomorrow and Johnson will take a one-point triumph to give his men much needed confidence before their daunting away matches with Wales and Ireland. Another loss and it will get very ugly for the man who is supposed to lead England to the promised rugby land.