Sir Clive Woodward's men have been feted by the Queen, the Prime Minister and the general public - all 750,000 of them on the streets of London when the Webb Ellis Trophy was paraded - since they became the first northern hemisphere side to win the World Cup last year in Australia.

However, Italy coach John Kirwan has promised a less respectful welcome when the world champions appear at the sold-out Stadio Flaminio.

Unfortunately for Italy at least 7,500 of the 24,593 fans at the compact Flaminio will be English.

But, whatever the make-up of the crowd, Kirwan has promised a hot reception for the all-conquering English.

Although injured talisman Jonny Wilkinson and the retired Martin Johnson will be absent, Kirwan said: "I am happy they have two or three players injured but they will have 13 players who played in the World Cup and I am pleased that my men will play them because they will be extra motivated.

"We don't want to let down Sir Clive Woodward - we want to be the most physical team in the Six Nations.

"We want to prove that we can play against anyone - I believe this young side has fantastic ability and our results have grown at a steady pace."

In four seasons of Six Nations rugby Italy have won twice - at home to Scotland in 2000 and at home to Wales last year, both in their opening games of the tournament.

Now Kirwan wants to step that up by winning twice in a season and he considers that the mighty world champions are fair game.

Kirwan said: "We won one game last season and now we need to win two. The big turning point for Italian rugby would be to win a big game.

"The federation president (Giancarlo Dondi) and I have more faith in our young team than they do themselves and we want to show on Sunday our improvement."