Wales vs England: Let the talking cease, and the rugby scream from the Principality Stadium’s (open) rooftop
Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland have been unable to resist firing verbal barbs at each other’s squad, but come Saturday afternoon the talking stops and the walking begins
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Your support makes all the difference.A two-week build up to Wales’ potential Grand Slam decider with England was always going to be too long for Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland to both keep schtum.
Under the sheer weight of press conferences and embargoed chin wags, eventually one of them was going to break ranks.
They got close to keeping a lid on things, to be fair. But on Thursday, when naming his team, Jones pulled the pin by claiming Gatland’s men, who the England coach alone has labelled the “greatest Wales team ever”, would be ready to “rip players heads off”, while simultaneously calling on his own boys to “knock-out” Saturday's opponents.
Starter’s gun fired.
Gatland responded because (a) he had to and (b) he was bored, by describing England travelling to Cardiff in rush hour on Friday as a “significant mistake”, while apparently encouraging supportive local farmers to trundle their tractors up the Newport tunnel to delay England’s coach on the M4.
What japes.
Come Saturday at 4.45pm it will all count for nothing and we can all get on with watching, or playing in the case of 46 brave souls, what will surely be an enthralling Test match between two teams in rude health seven months out from the World Cup.
England are narrow favourites, and rightly so considering the dominant manner of their wins over Ireland and France, but Wales are absolutely in this fight.
Eleven wins from 11 and a player pool which allows Gatland to field a back-row of Justin Tipuric, Ross Moriarty and Josh Navidi, despite missing Taulupe Faletau, Aaron Shingler, Ellis Jenkins, James Davies and Dan Lydiate through injury, means Wales have rarely been in better shape.
Such is the faith Gatland has in 21-year-old blindside Aaron Wainwright, Wasps flanker Tomas Young does not even get a look in on the bench after his impressive display against Italy a fortnight ago.
As expected, Leigh Halfpenny does not feature as he continues his rehabilitation from concussion with Scarlets, but in Liam Williams Wales have a No 15 with the wit, guile, pace and footballing ability to strike fear into any opposition defensive line. The Saracen will be a constant threat to England.
Halfpenny would have provided a safer counter to England’s much-vaunted kicking game but Williams provides the rapier thrust. England will ignore him at their peril.
It may feel strange Wales going into the game on the back of an 11-match winning run but without the obvious sense of momentum England built up on their way to a record 18-match unbeaten streak off the back of Jones taking over in 2016.
But Gatland won’t care in the least. He has tinkered, changed and tweaked his side for the purposes of next year’s World Cup and if you’d told him at the start of last November, when Wales won four autumn Tests for the first time ever, his team would still be unbeaten today he probably wouldn’t have believed you.
The New Zealander’s mind has been fixed on a greater prize and avoiding the scenario he found himself in during the 2015 World Cup when he effectively ran out of fit international-class players in his squad to face South Africa in the quarter-finals.
Whatever happens on Saturday, that will not be a problem in Japan in seven months. Gatland’s sometimes controversial selection policy has paid off.
Not for the first time, he was heavily criticised for his team selection against Italy. Many felt if devalued the tournament. But it has been Italy’s abject failure to compete in recent years which has devalued the tournament, not opponents’ decisions to blood second-string players yet still win comfortably in Rome.
We’ve questioned Gatland before and generally he’s been proved right. The only way that workmanlike but uninspiring two-try win over Italy could come back to bite him would be if the outcome of the Six Nations comes down to bonus points on the final weekend. That possible scenario can wait.
Against England, the Wales head coach has opted for Gareth Anscombe ahead of the more experienced Dan Biggar at fly-half, while Gareth Davies returns at scrum-half after sitting on the side lines in Wales’ opening two wins. With Blues in-form No 9 Tomos Williams not considered through injury and Ospreys Aled Davies on the bench after starting against Italy, Gatland is back to his half-back pairing of choice in the autumn.
From an attacking perspective alone, it his most potent combination with Anscombe’s ability to bring on his wide runners giving his the edge over Biggar’s defensive qualities and more reliable goal-kicking. Biggar will play a role from the bench, no doubt.
Mercifully, the talking is nearly done. Two teams. Two try lines. One winner. It’s time for the rugby to scream from the Principality Stadium’s (open) rooftop.
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