Josh Lewsey is convinced England will reflect on last weekend's Six Nations victory-over Italy as the dawn of a new era for English rugby.

England ended a four-game losing streak and a winter of discontent with a comfortable six-try win over the Azzurri at Twickenham when, for the first time, things started to go as planned.

The first shoots of a recovery, which the England coaching staff had always insisted were growing, finally showed the light of day and Lewsey now insists the side can go on to blossoming success.

Next up is Scotland for the Calcutta Cup at Twickenham tomorrow and England have a renewed determination to take another step on the road to retaining the World Cup.

"We have been through some pretty low points and we are certainly on the way back up. With all due respect to Italy, it wasn't New Zealand we were playing - but I think we will look back on last weekend's game against Italy in a couple of years and say that was the stepping stone going forward," said Lewsey, 28.

"We have come through these hard losses and started rebuilding again. Last weekend was the first time we produced what we set out to do during training.

"That was to put some shape and pattern on the amount of possession we had enjoyed in previous games.

"Against Scotland it is about making another step forward with the ball in hand because our defence, by and large in this tournament, has been pretty damn good.

"It's what we do with ball in hand that dictates what the score will be at the weekend."

And if they can match the manner in which Wales blitzed Scotland in the first

half at Murrayfield last Sunday the score will be hefty.

Scotland, though, made an impressive second-half fightback against Wales and the architects of that response have been rewarded with starts on Saturday.

Nathan Hines will start in the second row and Leeds flyhalf Gordon Ross replaces Dan Parks in the No 10 jersey.

The combative Jason White returns to the blindside flank to strengthen Scotland's backrow, with Ally Hogg moving to openside and Simon Taylor at No 8.

"We know what Scotland are like, they love to put one over on us," said Lewsey.

"They've played some fairly negative rugby in this championship and haven't performed well as a result of it.

"But against Wales in the second half they came out and showed what they are capable of doing. They showed how they can score tries and be dangerous.

"Gordon [Ross] has played in the Premiership regularly and he is a class player. He is a talented guy. We know what they are capable of."

But Lewsey is confident that England will have too much for the Scots, however bravely they battle.

"We know if we perform to our ability we can win the game. That is the end of it," he said.