England, Wales hope to keep grand slam dream alive

LONDON: Everyone else in rugby enjoys an England defeat for a variety of historical reasons but the neutrals will be behind Wales in Cardiff on Saturday in the more prosaic hope of preserving some uncertainty in the outcome of the Six Nations championship.

England and Wales are the only two teams to have won their opening two games and victory for Eddie Jones’s team, who next face Italy and Scotland at Twickenham, would make them oddson for a grand slam.

Should Wales win, however, particularly after their failure to take any bonus points from their first two games and with a lastday match against defending champions Ireland to come, the excitement will be high right through to “Super Saturday” on March 16.

England start favourites on the back of their superb wins over Ireland and France, where their rivals had no answer to their inventive kicking game and the high-speed chasing of winger Jonny May in particular.

They are without Mako Vunipola, the prop who has done so much damage since his return, winger Chris Ashton and lock Maro Itoje, but they look immensely strong in every department and it is as settled a side as Jones has assembled since his arrival.

England have won their last five championship games against the Welsh, though that run was punctuated by the little matter of the World Cup pool game at Twickenham in 2015 when Wales pulled off a memorable triumph.

Wales fans will also look to draw inspiration from 2013 when a confident England team under Stuart Lancaster travelled to Cardiff seeking victory to secure a grand slam and instead were routed 30-3 in an amazing atmosphere under the closed roof of the now-Principality Stadium.

Another Welsh success on Saturday would set a national record of 12 consecutive victories, a run that prompted Jones to fire an early barb a few minutes after the France victory by describing them as the best Wales team ever.