PHIL LARDER and Grant Doorey go head-to-head at Twickenham this weekend in Rugby Union's Six Nations Championship.

The former rugby league clubmates are on the coaching staff of the English and Italian rugby union teams.

Larder was coach at Keighley Cougars from 1994-96 when Doorey was one of the stars of his successful team. "My time in Keighley was very special, and I have kept in touch with Phil," said Doorey speaking to KN Sport from the Italian training camp near Pisa this week.

After leaving the Cougars the Aussie was player-coach with French club Villeneuve and went on to coach French rugby union club, Bourgoin, helping them to qualify for the European Cup.

"I was then invited to help work with Italy for the Rugby Union World Cup in 2003, and that was a chance I couldn't turn down," he said.

By then Larder was already an established member of the England team's coaching squad and was one of their main architect's of their World Cup victory in Australia.

Now he is helping to blend a new squad of players into a successful team and on Saturday both England and Italy will be looking for their first win of the championship.

"Our defence, which is my area, has been very good. We have only conceded two tries in three games, but we are now losing 50-50 games and previously we would have won them.

"We need a more cutting edge and to score more tries," Larder said.

He also praised his former pupil. "Grant has done an outstanding job with the Italian defence both in their ability to hit the ball up and tackle, they are the most physical team in the competition."

Doorey, who now lives in northern Italy with his wife Claire and sons Mackenzie and Monty, also coaches defensive play with senior Italian club sides.

He is looking for greater consistency from his team. "It is going to be a tough game for us. We can be physical but we need to reduce our error rate when going forward - if we can get it right it could be an interesting game," Doorey said.