DAN TAKES INSPIRATION FROM 2015 WIN

4.45pm

DAN BIGGAR will summon the spirit of Wales’ dramatic World Cup win over England at Twickenham in 2015 to inspire his team today.

The Wales captain (left), one of four survivors in the starting line-up, kicked 23 points in an extraordinary 28-25 victory which helped to send England tumbling out of their own tournament.

He landed eight kicks out of eight, including the inning penalty from just short of halfway. The nature of the smash and grab was even more incredible given the body count which saw three Wales backs leave the field injured.

“It was just a brilliant evening, a brilliant result, brilliant character. For any team going away and winning in places like Twickenham, at some point you’ve got to really roll your sleeves up and that’s what we’ll have to do on Saturday,” said Biggar. “It’s very difficult to coach that fight, that togetherness and resolve, it has to come from within. We made a decision that night that we weren’t going to go away.

“We had to deal with a lot of injuries that evening, I ended up playing the last 15-20 minutes at full-back and Lloyd Williams had to come onto the wing - but we had a good win that evening.

“I remember driving back to the team base afterwards and I was straight in the cryotherapy chamber at 3am because we were playing four days later.”

Seven years on Biggar is the man with the big calls to make today in an all-northampton captaincy clash with Courtney Lawes.

With England promising a blitz start, Biggar’s priority is ensuring Wales are fast out of the blocks.

“The last couple of times we have been up to Twickenham we have been behind on the scoreboard early and it’s such a difficult task then. It’s important we don’t give them a start because they have some serious strength in depth,” he said.