George Kruis ready for 'scrap' with Italy

England lock forward George Kruis has been busy getting England ready for the sort of scrap that he believes Italy thrive on.

Eddie Jones' side head to the Stadio Olimpico tomorrow (Sunday) as favourites despite recent fixtures being anything but easy for them.

Three of their last four visits to Italy have seen them win by five points or fewer after becoming bogged down in attritional forward games - Italy's strength.

Jones has a plan to subdue a side carrying some form into the match after almost snatching a win over France in last week's opener before cutting loose in the final quarter when Danny Care, Maro Itoje and Jack Clifford are expected to add energy from the bench.

"Italy are a team who want to slow everything down and to turn the game into bit of a scrap and a fight. Their ability to do that is an art in itself," Kruis said.

"We've seen that, especially in the set-piece where they try to slow it down and make it 50-50 instead of what we want. That will be a big challenge for us.

"Eddie wants us to play with tempo and play the sort of game that suits us. If we do that we'll get the result.

"We know that in recent times we have won by five points or less, and that speaks volumes in itself.

"Italy's captain Sergio Parisse is a massive talisman and gets them going, so we'll be looking to take him down early."

Jones has made three changes from England's opening day 15-9 defeat of Scotland at Murrayfield, with Ben Youngs, Courtney Lawes and Mako Vunipola coming into the starting XV.

Itoje has been rewarded for his stunning form with a place on the bench and Kruis, a Saracens team-mate, tips the 21-year-old to excel.

"Maro has massive potential. Hopefully he'll fulfil it and I'm sure he will. He's a very good player and looks at the game in a lot of detail, putting the time in," Kruis said.

"He's also humble enough to know he has to keep his head down and keep working.

"He wouldn't be here with England unless he was ready to make the step up from club level.

"He'll bring what he does for Saracens to international level. He's a level-headed guy who has played in big games before.

"People say he's only played in club games, but at Saracens we've played at places like Clermont and Racing Metro. He'll do well."

While Itoje is just starting out on his international career, Kruis has become an established member of England's squad and is now entrusted with running the line-out - something that worked well against Scotland.

"I enjoy calling the line-out. I often look at it as a game within itself, like a puzzle, a game of chess. I wasn't too good at chess though!" Kruis said.

"It's something that you have to put the hours into and hopefully we get the rewards from that. You analyse your strengths and weakness and do the same for the opposition.

"And of course on game day there are so many different variables to take into account."

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