Eddie Jones tells his England players to channel their inner Muhammad Ali

Eddie Jones has challenged England to atone for their Calcutta Cup capitulation by channelling Muhammad Ali and leaving Italy on the canvas on Sunday.

Jones has made some of the most exciting team selections of his tenure, handing starts to Harry Randall and Alex Dombrandt and omitting six of the starters who lost to Scotland. With Marcus Smith continuing at fly-half Jones believes he and Dombrandt can reproduce their formidable double act at Harlequins with the head coach urging England to “light up Rome”.

England’s starting XV has just 347 caps which is by some distance the least experienced side Jones has named in the Six Nations. In contrast, the eight replacements boast 409 caps with Ben Youngs set to equal Jason Leonard’s all-time England record of 114 provided he comes on. Luke Cowan-Dickie is also on the bench but Jones was adamant last week’s costly yellow card against Scotland did not factor in the decision.

Against Scotland, Jones was criticised for his use of replacements, particularly in taking Smith off with 17 minutes to go when England led 17-10. But with Italy expected to tire as the match wears on, he has named a fearsome set of replacements and urged England’s starters to seize their opportunity before the power-packed bench delivers the knockout blow.

“We want to be ruthless,” said Jones. “We’ve got a chance on Sunday to atone for what we did last Saturday. We can only do that from being really ruthless and having that vision of Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston. That sort of image in your head where you want to really go at them.

“When you look at the quality of our bench, it’s testament to the strength of the squad. We’ve got what would be deemed a very young and inexperienced team starting.