Italy have just one victory to show for their last 20 Six Nations matches and, with Georgia hammering on the door, Conor O’Shea’s men are under pressure to maintain their place at European rugby’s annual top table.
An opening clash with England does not get much tougher, and last November the Azzurri scored just one try in three games, against Fiji in Catania, during their autumn internationals.
Indeed, in 2017 no Tier One nation scored fewer tries than Italy, 13 in 11 matches, underlining the scale of the task they face in stopping Eddie Jones’ defending champions in Rome on Sunday.
Last season, Italy’s gameplan was to kick deep and apply pressure, but these tactics failed and they got thumped by Ireland and Wales.
The Welsh were the only team not to come away with the four-try bonus against the Azzurri in the tournament.
O’Shea said he has had to kickstart a machine which had been stalled for a good 20 years, but the time for progress of some sorts has come.
That said, nine of the 15 players selected to start at the Stadio Olimpico have won less than 10 international caps, while captain Sergio Parisse, lock Alessandro Zanni and hooker Leonardo Ghiraldi, possess more than 50.
Full-back Matteo Minozzi, centres Tommaso Boni and Tommaso Castello and forwards Dean Budd, Simone Ferrari and back row pair Sebastian Negri and Renato Giammarioli will all make their Championship debuts.
The emergence of the latter duo sees Maxime Mbanda make do with a place on the bench, while Braam Steyn is not included in the 23-man matchday squad at all.
O’Shea, the former Harlequins director of rugby, said: "It's really hard because we're competitive people, Sergio, myself, all the squad, the coaches.
"We want to win every game we play. We prepare to win every game. But we're also realistic.
"I can't stand in front of people and say 'we'll win the Grand Slam, we'll win the Six Nations, we'll win the World Cup', they will look at me and say 'you're stupid'.
"What we do control is our performances. If we play our best and England, or Ireland or France play at their best level, they will win at the moment.
"What we're doing is making sure that our goal is to play to our best. And we'll see. Because sport is sport and it's 15 against 15 and things can happen within matches.
"It's difficult for the fans to understand that we're on the right track even if we lose. It's tough, it's a hard, hard ask all the time, to pick yourself up and to go again."
One man who knows O’Shea better than most is Harlequins scrum-half Danny Care, an England veteran with 76 Test caps to his name.
The Yorkshireman has faced Italy on six occasions - scoring two tries - and is excited by the challenge O'Shea's men pose.
It was his former Quins supremo who laid the foundation for last season’s no-ruck tactic at Twickenham, and as a result, Care is expecting the unexpected on Sunday.
He said: “Italy will come out with some tricks I’m sure, and they’ll cause us some problems but it is up to us to ride those momentum shifts.
“With the experience we have out there I’m sure we can do just that.
“We don’t know what they are going to do but if we get our stuff right on the pitch we will cause a lot of problems. That's what we are going to try and do.”
Since entering the Six Nations in 2000, the Italians have finished bottom of the table 12 times.
Few would bet against them doing so again this year.
