GAT HOPING DRAGONS’ HISTORY WILL REPEAT ITSELF
WARREN GATLAND can already detect the faint whiff of a Wales Six Nations Grand Slam.
But the Kiwi head coach (right) admits the expectation on his team will go up for Saturday’s crunch meeting with England after their thrashing of Scotland.
Wales started their tournament with a bonus-point success at Principality Stadium as Leigh Halfpenny ended the game with 24 points. Gatland’s two previous Slams with Wales in 2008 an 2012 saw them face England and Ireland on the road and it is the same again this year.
He said: “We have won the two Grand Slams with this draw, but now we will go from one extreme to the other. There was no expectation on us against Scotland; we were c**p and a lot of people were writing us off and saying we were going to lose.
“We will go from that to next week with expectations through the roof. You have to deal with that when you are in Wales. “But we have not been afraid of going to Twickenham since I have been involved. We have had some good performances and results against England. It is a great ground and if you go there with confidence and selfbelief, you hope to get something from it.” Halfpenny crossed in either half against Scotland for his first Wales tries in five years. Gareth Davies opened the scoring and Steffan Evans’ acrobatic fourth made it a maximum five-point haul. Wales’ side against Scotland was made up of 10 Scarlets and their enterprising rugby was too much for their opponents to deal with.
Next up is Eddie Jones’ champions and Gatland added: “England know as much about us as we know about them. It is a mouth-watering fixture as I don’t think people were expecting us to win as comfortably as we did here. I hope a few people sit up and take a bit of notice.”
Scotland went 79 minutes without scoring and skipper John Barclay said: “It’s hard to understand what happened.”