Smith, Atkinson and Murley start in England revamp

England have shredded their backline and made a total of 12 changes – nine personnel switches and three positional shifts – to their starting line-up to face Italy in the hope a selection revolution will jump-start their stalled Six Nations campaign.

Fin Smith starts at fly-half, while Gloucester centre Seb Atkinson comes in at 12 for his third cap, and George Ford and Fraser Dingwall – crucial parts of England’s all-conquering autumn campaign – are both left out of the matchday squad entirely.

Henry Arundell also loses his place, with Harlequins’ Cadan Murley and Sale’s Tom Roebuck preferred on the wing, while Elliot Daly comes in for full-back Freddie Steward, who was replaced before half-time in the 42-21 defeat by Ireland last time out.

With Ollie Lawrence injured, Tommy Freeman shifts to outside centre from the wing, and Ben Spencer is preferred to Jack van Poortvliet at scrum-half as first-choice Alex Mitchell misses the rest of the tournament with a hamstring problem.

England: Daly; Roebuck, Freeman, Atkinson, Murley; F Smith, Spencer; Genge, George, Heyes, Itoje (capt), Coles, Pepper, T Curry, Earl.

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

England’s line-out wobbled badly against the Irish, however, and hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie, another to be withdrawn before the interval, pays the price with Jamie George coming back into the starting line-up.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

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.