Wales are underwhelmed by the England team’s promise to turn Twickenham into a fortress for their match on Saturday. “We’re not intimidated by it,” said their head coach, Warren Gatland on Thursday, “I can tell you that.” England’s captain, Jamie George, mentioned the crowd again on Thursday, when he said that instead of starting Test week with the usual talk about their gameplan, the team spoke instead about how to make Twickenham a more hostile environment. George said that it had “set the tone for the week”.
“We want to be physical, we want to be confrontational, we want to be aggressive, if we do that then I think that the fans’ engagement will be very clear,” George said. “I think there’s going to be a great atmosphere at Twickenham. Now the responsibility is on us as players to go and back that up.” England, he said, have “a huge responsibility to give people opportunities to get off their seat and cheer.”
Well, whatever other worries Wales have, and there are plenty, Gatland was clear that the welcome they’ll get from the English fans isn’t one of them. “I’ve had a few wins there,” Gatland said, “going back to my days with Wasps, so it doesn’t hold any trepidation. I don’t find it intimidating at all. It’s great when you come in the gates and everyone is outside and you’ve got the fans there, it’s a great stadium to walk into. I love the atmosphere. And it’s even more special if you can walk away with a win.”
Gatland especially enjoys it when the place falls quiet. “For us,” he said, “it’s about starting well and stopping the crowd singing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot too early.”
The question is whether Gatland’s young team will be able to do that. The only change England have made is to bring Ellis Genge back on the bench. But Wales have made seven changes to the side that lost by a point to Scotland after going 20-0 down in the first half of the opening round, and even with George North back in midfield, they look raw. Five of them have played fewer than five Tests each, and their fly-half Ioan Lloyd is making his first Test start.
Gatland might well have had another rookie in there, too, if the gifted young wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, who was born and raised in Cardiff, had not decided to play for England instead. Feyi-Waboso made his debut against Italy and England picked him on the bench again this week. Gatland says he couldn’t care less. “We haven’t even spoken about him. He’s made his decision so good luck to him. There’s been no mention of his name,” he said. Gatland is more worried about the young players he does have.
“We’ve got some who we think have talent to be really good, but they are as green as anything,” Gatland said. “They haven’t had a lot of regional rugby, but they’ve had some age-group experience. They’re here at the moment learning and we’re trying to fast-track them, they’re young guys, learning the trade.” Which maybe explains why he was not quite as bullish as he has been in previous years. As he says himself, he may not be intimidated by Twickenham, but there’s no real way to tell how his team will handle the pressure of playing there.
“The only analogy is with county cricketers who are comfortable facing balls at 70 to 80mph and then suddenly they’re playing in a Test match, and someone is bowling 90 to 95mph at them,” Gatland said. “Unless you’ve experienced it, how do you do it?” He says that England are rebuilding, too. “I think probably both teams are in similar positions,” Gatland said, “trying to create some positivity around the game.”
It does mean he’s asking for the Welsh public to cut the side some slack if they do slip up. “I just hope that people can see that we have a group and it might take a little bit of time but we think that, with time together, this group of players and coaches, we’re going to end up with a quality side. That could be this Saturday, it could be the following week, but we already feel like we’re making the right progress in terms of the group together.” He will be hoping it happens sooner rather than later.
