Before Wales last played England, at the start of this year’s Six Nations, Warren Gatland wasted no opportunity to unsettle their World Cup pool opponents, scoffing at them for not agreeing to the roof at the Millennium Stadium being closed and pointing out that they could not settle on a style of play. Now, before the sides meet again at Twickenham on the trail of the Webb Ellis Cup, he appears in more deferential mood.
“I don’t want to play any kind of mind games,” said the Wales head coach on Thursday, a day after he had done exactly that with the tournament organisers by organising a scrum of players from Wales to help out at the squad’s training ground a few miles from Twickenham having established it was not, as World Rugby thought, in breach of the letter of the participation regulations. “It is just about this weekend and the huge respect I have for this English team. May the best team win.”
Circumstances have changed in the past eight months, and not only the venue where Wales will not be able to – as they did in Cardiff – leave the England team hanging around on their own for a few minutes after running out to listen to the jeers of the crowd. Both teams have made seven changes to their starting sides from that day, but while England’s are largely down to selection, injuries have cursed Gatland, who is without four of his leading backs and lacks a game-changer on the bench.
Wales were confident of victory in February, but there is nothing to be gained in tweaking England’s tail this time, drenching the hosts with compliments instead. Sam Burgess was a world-class player, Owen Farrell was quality, they had enviable strength in depth and their management team was impressive.
Gatland’s team will not be the favourites this time with a full-back, Liam Williams, who has only played 35 minutes of rugby since last season, a raw wing in Hallam Amos, a tighthead prop, Tomas Francis, making his third start and no specialist loosehead cover on the bench for a match refereed by an official who sets a high premium on scrummaging within the regulations, Jérôme Garcès.
“Injuries bring you closer together,” said Gatland. “I think I have in the past demonstrated an ability to get the best out of people when the expectation is not there. It is about creating an environment of self-belief. What makes England dangerous is their strength on the bench and the ability they have to change their game: they can go to driving and kicking to being expansive and there are a number of things we need to be able to cope with.”
Gatland’s had few choices to make in selection: Amos was chosen over the 2013 Lion Alex Cuthbert, who is out of form, Scott Baldwin edged Ken Owens at hooker and the abrasive Bradley Davies was preferred to the far taller Luke Charteris in the second row, but a choice of styles was never an option. Gatland had been plotting for an England midfield of George Ford, Brad Barritt and Jonathan Joseph, for once grateful to the media in printing something that was not supposed to be known.
“We were not expecting Farrell, Burgess and Barritt so we have changed our direction a bit,” he said. “Jonathan Joseph has caused us problems with his footwork and it shows that England have huge strength in depth. They believe they have made the right choice behind and I would not mind having that sort of dilemma, but we are a much smaller nation and our 5-5 record against the most powerful and richest union in the world since I have been here is not bad. It is a huge challenge for us on Saturday and we need to put as much pressure on them as possible.”
Gatland will come armed with a plan, but one area Wales will need to assert their superiority is the scrum, which has had a major influence on the outcome of the past three meetings between the sides. Garcès, like all French referees, has no tolerance for props who do not stay straight, as Wales’s loosehead Gethin Jenkins found to his cost in February having been sent to the sin-bin by Romain Poite at Twickenham the year before.
“Our plan from the warm-up games was to paint a good picture of our scrum,” said Francis, who starts on the tighthead with Samson Lee on the bench after his return from an achilles tendon operation was truncated last weekend by a foot strain. “We want to make sure that if there is a 50-50 call that the referee does not have a bad opinion of us and I feel that we have done that in our last few games. The front five is where they will try and take us on and where the game will be won and lost. We have used referees at our scrummaging sessions, and if it seems that every referee is different, we know what Jérôme Garcès looks for and so far the World Cup has been about the loosehead not turning in.”
Wales have only twice won at Twickenham since 1988, but Gatland was in charge each time on a ground where he oversaw three Premiership wins and one European final victory with Wasps. “It is the biggest match of my life on my favourite ground after the Millennium Stadium,” said the Wales captain, Sam Warburton. “It is a must-win game as it would relieve the pressure in a tough group, but it is not the be-all-and-end-all.”
