MILAN: Italy fly-half Carlo Canna insists he won't be cowed by praise from Eddie Jones, or the Stadio Olimpico crowd, when the Azzurri host England looking to cause a Six Nations upset on Sunday.
Until last year, Canna was plying his trade with second division side Fiamme Oro before making a career-defining switch to Pro 12 outfit Zebre.
On his Six Nations debut in Paris last week, the 23-year-old was one of the highlights of an Azzurri side that left the Stade de France largely satisfied in spite of a 23-21 defeat to the hosts.
He scored one of Italy's two tries, made the conversion and finished the game with a penalty and a drop goal to his name as Jacques Brunel's new-look Italy came close to causing a major upset.
It prompted praise from new England coach Jones, but Canna is not overly impressed: "It's nice to receive compliments but maybe the tactic of (Eddie) Jones is to put me under pressure ahead of Sunday's match.
"More than the points I scored or the compliments I received, I'm thinking about the two kicks and the penalty I missed: in my position, that's unacceptable."
England travel to Rome looking to build on the back of a battling 15-9 victory over Scotland at Murrayfield.
Canna expects a completely different team to show up. Despite offering praise to England centre Owen Farrell and fellow fly-half George Ford, he has called on Italy to make the necessary adjustments to stop Jones's men in their tracks.
"The France game is over, we paid a small price for our inexperience and that made the difference to the final score. Now we're working hard to give England some food for thought," added Canna.
"For me, the choice of Jones to deploy Ford and Farrell together was really interesting. They're both great players and respectively make huge contributions to the squad. They are two players we need to watch.
"We're facing a totally different team from last week: one that, in the first two phases, we'll try to use the pack to push the team forward and open up the game.
"We have to be solid in the tackles, much more than we were against France."
In August last year Canna became the first Fiamme Oro player in 29 years, and the team's first since current team manager Luigi Troiani, to pull on the Azzurri shirt.
He may be used to much smaller crowds, but Italy's newest fly half star is perfectly at one with the prospect of his Stadio Olimpico debut in the Six Nations.
"Of course I will be emotional, but not too much. Until a year ago I was playing in the Eccellenza (second tier) league in front of much smaller crowds," he said.
"But once the referee blows his whistle, all rugby matches are the same."
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