Head coach Steve Borthwick has been less ruthless among the forwards.

England’s line-out wobbled badly against Ireland, however, and hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie, another to be withdrawn before the interval, pays the price with Jamie George coming back into the starting line-up.

Alex Coles partners Maro Itoje in the second row, while Henry Pollock returns to the bench with Guy Pepper returning to partner Tom Curry and Ben Earl in the back row.

Lock Ollie Chessum also drops to the bench.

England have sacrificed many of the faces and combinations that fuelled a year-long 12-match winning run, but Borthwick will hope that loss of continuity will be more than compensated for by the energy, form and enthusiasm brought by his new picks.

Atkinson and Murley were among a clutch of players who returned to their clubs last weekend to prove their fitness and form.

“We’ve been disappointed with aspects of the performance over the last two weeks after setting such a high bar for so long,” Borthwick told Rugby Union Weekly.

“The last couple of weeks have not been at that same standard. We set very, very high standards for ourselves and we are really disappointed by that.

“At the same point in time, you draw a line under it and say, ‘right, let’s look very firmly ahead to the next game’.

“We can’t wait to get to Rome and play against Italy on Saturday.”

After dispatching Wales comfortably in the opening round, England’s performances have taken a sharp downward turn, with losses to Scotland and Ireland by 11 and 21 points respectively.

They have never lost to Italy in 32 previous meetings, but the Azzurri’s performances have been in stark contrast to their opponents.

Italy beat Scotland in their opener and pushed Ireland and France hard in defeat.

While they have lost mercurial full-back Ange Capuozzo to injury, centre Ignacio Brex has returned to the set-up after missing the past two games for personal reasons.