We’ve given notice of title credentials – Gats
WARREN Gatland hopes the people who wrote Wales off before the Six Nations will now be sitting up and taking notice of his side following the demolition of Scotland.
And the Kiwi coach insists his players will have no fears of going to Twickenham next Saturday to take on back-to-back Championship title winners England.
Despite being without a number of big names through injury, Wales blew highly-fancied Scotland away 34-7 at the Principality Stadium to kick off the tournament with a bonus point win.
“I hope a few people sit up and take a little bit of notice now,” said Gatland.
“We will go from one extreme to the other, won’t we?
“There was no expectation beforehand. A lot of ex-Welsh media people and stuff were saying we were going to lose and writing us off.
“We will go from that to next week with expectations through the roof. You have to deal with that when you live in Wales.
“People had written us off, but I knew we were in a good place and knew we had been training well.
“This group of guys always work hard when they come in and we were quietly confident we could put on a performance given the way we had been training.
“I went back to New Zealand over Christmas and spoke to Grant Fox.
“He said that when the All Blacks were here in the autumn, the hardest game they had on the tour was against Wales and it was the best they played.
“I came away from that conversation feeling we were not as far away as people thought we were.”
On the four-try rout of the Scots, he added: “There have been times in the past when we have put good patches together, but the pleasing thing is this time we put it together for longer phases and we defended exceptionally well.”
Next up for Wales is an encounter at Twickenham with Eddie Jones’ England team, who yesterday beat Italy 46-15 in Rome.
“We have not been afraid of going there since I have been involved,” said Gatland. “We have had some good performances and results there and good victories against England.
“So, it’s not a place that we are afraid to go to. It is a great ground and if you go there with confidence and self-belief hopefully you can get something from it.
“It is a mouth-watering fixture now because I don’t think people were expecting us to win as comfortably as we did. That will make next week even more exciting.”
Gatland also pointed to the fact that during his tenure, Wales have won two Grand Slams (2008 & 2012) when they have had three homes games and two away, culminating in a Cardiff clash with France.
George North, Liam Williams and Hallam Amos are all likely to be available for the game against England, providing selection options in the back three. But England will be without scrum-half Ben Youngs, who went off in Rome with a serious knee injury.
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