England aim to make Italy pay dearly for any penalties they concede in tomorrow's Test at Huddersfield. Jonathan Webb, Rob Andrew and Mike Catt have averaged four penalties in England's three wins over Italy - and now it is Paul Grayson's turn.

Stand-in captain Martin Johnson said: "The Italians seem to give away a lot of penalties for killing the ball. But if we look after our ball properly they cannot kill it, legally or illegally, and we can play rugby.

"Against Holland, even though we won 110-0, we did not protect our ball. On Sunday, if we do get penalties, we have the option of kicking for touch, kicking for goal or taking a quick tap to keep our game going."

England know that Italy have one of rugby's great kickers opposing them. Coach Clive Woodward said of ex-Argentina star Diego Dominguez: "From stand-off he can control a game with big kicking and he is up there with the all-time strikers."

For several reasons, this is a key match, even though the World Cup qualifying issue has become an irrelevance with first England than Italy swamping the Dutch in this mini-pool.

England have to win a Test against a team now officially in the top nine. Italy were admitted to next year's expanded Sixth Nations Championship at the end of a season when England had been out-classed in away Tests by the top four.

Jerry Guscott stressed how fired up Italy will be. "If they can beat England that will rubber-stamp with a result their entry into the European event and whatever happens in between they would start with confidence in 15 months time," he said.

Next week Woodward has the chance to adjust his squad for the Test against Australia and South Africa in the following two weekends, and though the basic party of 26 is settled, this 22-man squad will be looking over their shoulders at the potential returns of regulars like Lawrence Dallaglio, who was appointed captain for the World Cup, David Rees and Kyran Bracken.