Six Nations 2018: Eddie Jones piles pressure on Rhys Patchell as England hatch plan to stop Wales

Wales fly-half will make just his second Six Nations start on Saturday against England, with Jones unleashing Jonathan Joseph in a bid to stop the creative Scarlets half-back

Eddie Jones has piled the pressure on inexperienced Wales fly-half Rhys Patchell by unleashing Jonathan Joseph for this Saturday’s Six Nations encounter with England, with the reigning champions ready to capitalise on any nerves hiding inside the Scarlets youngster.

Patchell will start only his fourth Test on Saturday – and second in the Six Nations – against England due to the injury-enforced absences of Dan Biggar and Rhys Priestland in what is already a top-of-the-table clash, and he faces a defensive onslaught from Jones’ side as they look to get to the No 10 in the hope of putting Wales off their game.

Part of that plan will be to let Joseph rush up in defence and threaten to either intercept anything thrown wide by Patchell or hit him along with inside centre Owen Farrell, and although Jones confirmed that he does not want to rush Ben Te’o with back-to-back Tests on his return from injury, he also expects Joseph to throw the Wales fly-half into the pressure cooker.

“Every time Rhys Patchell looks up he's going to see ‘JJ’ [Joseph] in his vision – it's not a great sight,” Jones said.

“They’ve got to get the ball wide and Patchell hasn’t played much Test match rugby. He’s a young guy, he’s inexperienced and he’s their third choice 10. He’s got to get the ball wide and that’s going to be a big job for him.

“It’s going to be different to playing against Scotland. Scotland couldn’t cope with the expectation and now he’s got to cope with the expectation of playing well. He’s got to find guys around him to help him because he’s going to be under some heat.”

Patchell starred in Wales’ 34-7 victory over Scotland on Saturday in the championship curtain-raiser, and while his two other starts came against New Zealand in 2016, he was deployed at full-back for those Tests and was not directly in the firing line.

Jones also batted away Warren Gatland’s claim that Wales have been and will be fitter than England. The New Zealander claimed this week that he feels his side have held a physical endurance advantage over England when they have met in recent years, and that he expects that trend to continue this Saturday.

But claiming that Gatland had been “talking a lot this week” due to his confidence, he dismissed the Kiwi’s claim that stemmed from England having one day shorter preparation after their trip to Rome last Sunday – a day after Wales beat Scotland.

“I can remember 18 or 24 months ago someone in the RFU, whose name I don't recollect at the moment, coming in and saying ‘you play Italy on Sunday and Wales on Saturday, is that OK?’

“No problem, that's the draw that's how we prepare for it. So we've had 18 months to prepare for this turnaround. Is that difficult? It's difficult if you haven't used your 18 months well. We've used our 18 months well. We've had a great preparation.”

Jones also believes the expectation that is now on Wales may get to them in the same way that it did for Scotland, both last season at Twickenham when their Calcutta Cup hopes capitulated in a record 69-12 defeat by England and also last weekend when their Six Nations championship hopes suffered a major setback in their heavy loss in Cardiff.

“They (Wales) played well, they played really well but it's going to be different on Saturday,” Jones added. “They had no expectation on them last Saturday but this week they come full of expectation. Everyone has been telling them how well they played, they are playing in front of 82,000 people at Twickenham, they are playing against a side that loves to play at Twickenham. The 82,000, it's like our 24th man. They are going to be full of energy, full of passion and it's going to be a great Saturday.”

Jones believes Patchell will face more pressure than he has done so far (Getty)

England haven’t lost at Twickenham since the 2015 Rugby World Cup pool stage, a campaign that saw Wales inflict a 28-25 defeat on the tournament hosts that paved the way to Stuart Lancaster’s dismissal and Jones’ hiring.

The tournament also proved to be the last time that Richard Wigglesworth played in a Test for England, but the Saracens scrum-half returns this weekend following the season-ending knee injury suffered by Ben Youngs last weekend. Wigglesworth will have to wait for his international return though, with Danny Care being named in the starting line-up.

Care will become England’s most-capped scrum-half in history, overtaking Matt Dawson’s existing mark of 77 Test appearances, and Jones joked that the media-friendly Harlequins half-back could soon be threatening Dawson for his place on BBC show ‘A Question of Sport’ after surpassing his feat.

Care returns to the starting line-up to face Wales (Getty)

“It's an opportunity for him to play well for the team to win, that's the opportunity for him – he understands that – he's a great team man, works hard on and off the field for the team regardless of whether he's starting or finishing,” Jones said.

“We are all pleased for him for the honour of him being the most-capped half-back. He might get a go on A Question of Sport now - he might be the next captain! He and Dylan [Hartley] might be the next captains in 10 years' time!”

Noting Wigglesworth’s return, Jones added: “He's been magnificent, truly professional. He's 34 [years old], trains like a 24-year-old, speaks like a 55-year-old, so he's handy mate, really handy. He's a great addition to the squad.”

England squad vs Wales:

M Brown; A Watson, J Joseph, O Farrell, J May; G Ford, D Care; M Vunipola, D Hartley, D Cole; J Launchbury, M Itoje; C Lawes, C Robshaw, S Simmonds.

Replacements: J George, A Hepburn, H Williams, G Kruis, S Underhill, R Wigglesworth, B Te’o, J Nowell.