Joe Cokanasiga surges down the left wing, ships inside to Ben Youngs, to Jonny May, hauled down just short.

Surely the first try is incoming...

Joss: Can we please get rid of singers during national anthems? Murrayfield anthems gave me goosebumps and are everything the 6 nations should be - raw, passionate, emotional. At Twickenham it’s the opposite and takes all feeling from what should be a spine tingling moment (obviously our terrible anthem doesn’t help).

The Six Nations doesn't get to hog all the drama today... there was a wild game in Northampton in the Premiership.

Saints went down to ELEVEN men,with four in the sin-bin. Piers O'Conor scored a late try before Ian Madigan slotted a penalty to claim a 26-24 win.

Joe Cokanasiga - built like a bricklayer, but with the grace of a ballerina.

The England wing claims a low, scudding cross-field kick from Owen Farrell and then flips a one-handed off-load out the back to Tom Curry as Jayden Hayward's tackle comes in.

Lovely hands, but Curry, taken a bit by surprise, can't match them, knocking on.

Joe Launchbury ploughs into the Italian defence, straining on the leash as Sergio Parisse's tackle. England building well...

Aussie ref Nic Berry peeps his whistle and Owen Farrell aims his drop-out towards Joe Cokanasiga...

Claimed!

England with early possession just inside the blue half.

Manu Tuilagi wins the most patriot pose prize, hand clamped over his heart, head thrown back to the skies and eyes screwed tight shut as God Save the Queen dies away.

Kick-off next...

The two teams stride out to the backing of Fatboy Slim's Right Here Right Now, with Sergio Parisse and Owen Farrell at the head of the queues.

Seamless segue coming up.

Into the fruity brass and jaunty vocals of the Italian national anthem...

Don't forget to send us your thoughts and reactions to all the action as it happens.

Image source, gett

BBC Radio 5 Live

There is live commentary of this one from Twickenham on BBC Radio 5 live.

Sara Orchard is calling the play with former England half-backs Matt Dawson and Paul Grayson on either shoulder.

You can tune in via the top of this page or your digital radio (as soon as the Southampton v Tottenham football commentary finishes).

Image source, Getty Images

There have been signs of Italy improving under Conor O'Shea however.

The Azzurri have scored at least 15 points in their last four games in the Six Nations. They hadn’t gone four consecutive games scoring at least 15 points since a six-match run between the 2000 and 2001 Championships.

"We’re in a different place to where we were two years ago,” said the Irishman.

“Two years ago, we couldn’t keep the ball in play, we would do anything to slow a game down. Look at our ball-in-play now and you see a team that can play for 39-42 minutes and not fall apart.

"At least now we can survive at that level.”

Image source, Reuters

This is Italy's 20th Six Nations campaign. And last week's reverse against Ireland was their 20th straight defeat in the competition.

The idea was was that the repeated exposure to top-level rugby would help them close the gap on Europe's established powerhouses.

Their fixture list in their very first Six Nations campaign was similar to this year's.

Here is how their results compare.

2000:

Scotland (H): Won 34-20

Wales (A): Lost 47-16

Ireland (A): Lost 60-13

2019:

Scotland (A): Lost 33-20

Wales (H) Lost 26-15

Ireland (H) Lost 26-16

England coach Eddie Jones speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live: “We don’t care how we win the game today, we just want to win it.”

This is the second match of the day.

The first was up in Edinburgh where a relentlessly accurate Wales and a valiant, but unsuccessful Scotland lived up to stereotype.

Wales are still on course for the Grand Slam, but Ireland at home on the final weekend is a seismic finale.

Image source, Getty

How will England react to their defeat by Wales?

Pretty feistily, judging by events four days after.

A joint training session with Georgia, arranged by Eddie Jones to tune up the forwards in particular, erupted into front-row fisticuffs in front of watching schoolchildren., external

Not a good look, and fortunately not one captured for the cameras. But Jamie George says that it might just have been what was needed.

"What it showed was as a pack we have each other’s backs and we are as tight as ever,” said the Saracens hooker., external

“It’s definitely brought us closer together. I know for a fact that the person to my left, right and behind me have got my back.

A formal get-up for this Twickenham regular...

...while the Italian fans channel Alex and his droogs from A Clockwork Orange. Pints of moloko all round.

Italy captain Sergio Parisse returns from concussion in one of three changes to the side that lost to Ireland.

Sebastian Negri joins him in the back row while hooker Luca Bigi gets his first start of the championship.

Replacements:16-Ghiraldini, 17-Traore, 18-Pasquali, 19-Sisi, 20-Polledri, 21-Palazzani, 22-McKinley, 23-Castello.

Tom Fordyce
BBC chief sports writer at Twickenham

Image source, Getty Images

Blowy old day in south-west London, the St George’s flags on the bars and food stalls threatening to rip off their tethers. Down pitchside it’s more sheltered but the wind swirls around this stadium. Critical calibrations...

Simon Gleave
Head of sports analysis, Gracenote

Image source, Getty Images

• England are the only team in this year's competition yet to concede a try in the first 20 minutes of their three matches.

• The centre partnership of Ben Te'o and Manu Tuilagi is the fifth different one selected by Eddie Jones in his 19 Six Nations Championship matches in charge of England. Owen Farrell and Jonathan Joseph started 11 of those 19 matches together but haven't done so since last year's defeat in Scotland.

• Ellis Genge (24 years 21 days) is the youngest loosehead prop to start a Six Nations match for England in five years. Genge is the fifth youngest number one for England in the competition in the professional era after Mako Vunipola, Alex Corbisiero, Matt Stevens and Joe Marler.

• Jonny May has not yet scored a try against Italy, despite playing against them in four different matches. He has also not scored against Scotland (two Tests) and Fiji (one) but has touched down against all other opponents.