Stuart Lancaster warned England their Grand Slam dreams will be wrecked by Wales next weekend unless they improve on a lacklustre display against Italy.

Lancaster was relieved that England came through what forwards coach Graham Rowntree described as “a massive scare”, with Toby Flood kicking all the points in an 18-11 victory.

While England are aiming for their first RBS Six Nations championship clean sweep in a decade, Wales remain firmly in the hunt to retain their title. A seven-point win should be enough.

But Lancaster hopes the Italy game will be just the kick up the backside England need before their Millennium Stadium showdown.

“It (the performance against Italy) wouldn’t be good enough, but from a coaching point of view it gives us a lot to go at,” Lancaster said.

“If we had won easily there might have been complacency or over-confidence seeping in. There won’t be any of that.

“We know we have got to play better, we know Wales are playing well but equally we know what we need to do to fix things up and we’re confident in the players we’ve got.”