Wales vs England - Six Nations 2016: 'Treat this match like a final,' Warren Gatland tells Welsh

'It will take bodies on the line on Saturday. This game will go a long way to deciding the title'

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Wales have been accused of a lack of spark in this Six Nations despite heading to Twickenham on Saturday unbeaten, the accusation being that the platform of their success has been built solely on defence.

But there has been a spark missing too from their head coach Warren Gatland in his pre-match deliberations – the mind games, the barbs, the prodding and poking of his rivals all distinctly lacking. He has made a conscious decision not to court controversy, playing a straight bat time and again to every question he has had thrown at him.

Any expectation that it would be different against England was quickly disproved yesterday at the Wales team hotel. Inquiries about Manu Tuilagi were politely but straightly dealt with: a Dylan Hartley query merely led to reserved praise for the England captain where once he would have been drawn on England’s approach to scrummaging. Instead Gatland singled out his youthful front row for combined merit.

Rather, Gatland has left the headlines and spin mastery to his opposite number, Eddie Jones, in the preceding match weeks. The pair know each other well – Jones during his tenure as Australia coach visiting Wasps where Gatland was based before taking over the reins with Wales. In return, Gatland earned himself an invite to the Wallabies camp.

Of that past encounter, he joked: “As a Kiwi, you don’t get many opportunities to get inside the Aussie camp but I get on with Eddie well. I think he’s been great. He’s taken the pressure off me, which has been nice. I’ve tried to keep my mouth shut! And he’s been refreshing and honest.”

England, under Jones, remain in their infancy but are unbeaten with him at the helm and sit on top of the Six Nations standings as the only side with a 100 per cent record while, at the same time, the jury is still out on how good coach and players alike might prove to be.

Gatland was nothing but effusive about his opposite number in a match which has the capacity to decide the championship.

“He’s brought a bit of an edge,” he said. “What Eddie has done is express himself and say what he thinks. He’s been honest and opinionated, and that’s great for the game. The players are enjoying the environment and thriving, which makes Saturday exciting for us.”

For his part, Gatland is adamant he has not whispered one word this week to his players about the hobbling Wales side that – with barely enough fit players to finish the game – stunned hosts England 28-25 at the World Cup.

But he made the point that the supposed new-look England under Jones was not wholly different from the team in Stuart Lancaster’s previous regime, highlighting the fact that “the two wingers have changed over, and six and seven, and basically it’s pretty much the same team on show at the World Cup”.

Yet the mentality of the England side under Jones appears to have shifted – although they have not been tested by Shaun Edwards’ well-drilled defensive unit so far.

Wales may not have been fired up to quite the level of intensity they were at the World Cup in the three match weekends to date, but they go to Twickenham with stability – not a single change to the starting line-up that defeated France, in contrast to the World Cup when Gatland appeared at times to be on the search for any fit centre to partner Jamie Roberts.

But the coach is all too aware that his players need to raise their level against the championship’s form side. “I think there’s another level in us,” he countered. “Our whole mentality this week is to approach this match as a final, to bring out the best in the players like an end-of-season game. We’ll have to improve and I’m sure England will improve.”

Gatland singled out Wales’ lack of execution and occasionally diminishing handling by the forwards in the wide channels as the key areas to show progress. And much rests on the front-row battle between Joe Marler and Samson Lee as well as how Dan Lydiate and Taulupe Faletau, in particular, deal with the threat of Billy Vunipola in the loose.

Whatever wounds England may be left with from the World Cup remain to be seen. The Wales defensive captain Roberts admitted in the build-up that he had fired the odd comedic barb at new Harlequins team-mate Chris Robshaw, dethroned as captain after the World Cup.

“I joked at a testimonial lunch in London that it wouldn’t be as lucrative as he might have hoped if he’d won the World Cup, which didn’t go down too well actually in a room full of Englishmen,” Roberts said.

The fixture is even more pertinent for Roberts as a Welshman abroad who plays his domestic rugby at the Stoop, just a stone’s throw from Saturday’s venue.

“That adds an extra bit of spice,” he said. “When you fast-forward 10 years and you don’t have these opportunities in life to play in games of this magnitude, you have to appreciate them more than ever.

“It will take bodies on the line on Saturday, full concentration because one missed tackle, penalty or unforced error could decide the championship. So this game will go a long way to deciding that.”

Another win at Twickenham would surely bring Gatland out of his recently acquired shell.