Hold back troopers
Twickenham crowd this week. England need the concrete cathedral of the English game to be at its most intense rather than subdued today.
“Personally, I love playing at Twickenham, knowing that my family’s there with me. You have 82,000 English fans there for you – that’s when you can add that emotion,” said Hartley.
“We’ve got to create our own energy as a team. And if we do that, the crowd will not be quiet.
“If we create our own energy, they’ll see our energy and they’ll feed off the way we’re playing and we’ll have a good time.”
But if Gatland’s side, buoyed by their win over Scotland, can stretch England, wrongfoot them and ultimately take them to a photo-finish, they believe they have M Brown A Watson J Joseph O Farrell J May G Ford D Care M Vunipola D Hartley (capt) D Cole J Launchbury M Itoje C Lawes C Robshaw S Simmonds the fitness edge to overturn a sceptical England.
Lawes said: “I don’t think that claiming you are a fitter team means you are.
“The kind of stuff that we go through in training every week, we are ready to play and we are as fit as we can be.
“We train for the hardest parts of the game. We train to make sure we are just as clinical in the 80th minute as we are in the first or the 20th – and that is what makes a difference.
“We will see who is the fitter team and by the end of the game who is the better team.” 14 13 12 11 10 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 L Halfpenny J Adams S Williams H Parkes S Evans R Patchell G Davies R Evans K Owens S Lee C Hill AW Jones (capt) A Shingler J Navidi R Moriarty
England replacements:
16 J George, 17 A Hepburn, 18 H Williams, 19 G Kruis, 20 S Underhill, 21 R Wigglesworth, 22 B Te’o, 23 J Nowell
Wales replacements:
16 E Dee, 17 W Jones, 18 T Francis, 19 B Davies, 20 J Tipuric, 21 A Davies, 22 G Anscombe, 23 G North
Referee: J Garces (Fra). Kick-off: 4.45pm, ITV.
THERE has been a solid move for Scotland to get beaten by France tomorrow, which would be a massive shock considering so much was expected of the Scots just a week ago.
But a return to Murrayfield may well be just the tonic to get their campaign back on track and my money will be on a home victory.
England v Wales should be a corker but the home side will be very hard to beat. England are now 10-11 to win the tournament and just 2-1 to win the Slam.
BY JOE CRILLY