Dragons all fired up for Eddie

WALES have told England they will meet fire with fire in tomorrow’s crunch clash.

Red Rose boss Eddie Jones lit the blue touchpaper ahead of the Twickenham tie yesterday with a series of pointed barbs at Warren Gatland’s side.

Wales’ forwards coach Robin McBryde refused to get drawn into a war of words, but was clear his team are ready for battle this weekend.

“I’m not going to try with Eddie. I know better. He’s always got a few things to get off his chest and hopefully he’ll feel better for it,” said McBryde (above).

“Eddie has said he is going to put us under pressure, but the same goes for us. Shaun Edwards will be banging the drum in terms of putting England under pressure.

“When the stakes are high there is no quarter asked and none given. That’s what it will be like.”

Wales named an unchanged side after thrashing Scotland 34-7 and, despite Gatland’s men being firm underdogs against double defending champions England, they are happy in that position.

“We are there to do a job. We know England are going to come after us at the set-piece and we’ll stand up to it and hopefully repay the compliment,” added McBryde.

“It is always the case with facing an England team – driving mauls, the scrum, the set-piece, they are their areas of strength. We have to make sure they don’t get any change out of that area.”

Wales will field 10 Scarlets and hope to balance raw aggression up front with more entertainment behind the scrum. “We don’t want to put our eggs in one basket and try to make a mess of every scrum. Those days are gone,” said McBryde.

“We have a duty to the paying public – prices of tickets at Twickenham are quite high, so the last thing they want is a scrum-fest.

“We are comfortable with our attacking threats behind.”