Woodward Looking Forward To Wales Clash

England manager Clive Woodward has issued a stern warning to Wales ahead of their meeting in round four of the Lloyds TSB Six Nations Championship at Twickenham in three weeks time.
No sooner had Woodward seen his side’s Grand Slam dreams go up in smoke at Stade De France with the 20-15 defeat against the French than he cast his mind forward to the Triple Crown showdown with the Welsh.
A defeat in France is one thing, but a first reverse at HQ against Wales since 1988 is almost unthinkable for Englishmen.
“We are upset now but we have to bounce back from this. We’ve been here before and we have got a good group of players,” warned Woodward.
“One defeat does not wipe away all the hard work we have put in over the last few years. We are certainly not going to hide behind this defeat.
“Maybe we got carried away after the Ireland result, but we knew we had to be at our best to win in France. I don’t want to take anything away from the French, but this defeat will make us stronger.
“Every time we have lost a test match we have come back stronger. We have got Wales at Twickenham next time out and we are already looking forward to that game.
“It’s not a case of watch out Wales,
but we will learn from this and look forward to the next game. We are hoping now that one of the other countries beats France.
“I am very disappointed with the loss – it’s as simple as that. France deserved to win the game as we started the match very badly.
“We knew that when we found ourselves 14-0 down it was going to be a difficult task. I am gutted for
everyone right from the players to all the staff, but having said that I’ve
got no complaints.”
England have turnd Twickenham into a fortress since the 1999 World Cup, winning 14 consecutive games and averaging more than 50 pointe per game.
In those matches they have scored 80 tries and conceded only 15. That shows that Wales will face a mighty task at the end of the month, despite the improvement they made in beateing Italy 44-20 last weekend.