Owen’s pledge

Michael Owen has expressed his disappointment at losing to France last time out and pledges to take the game to England this weekend.
 
“We will have to try and be aggressive and take the game to them just like Ireland did,” said Owen. “We saw what the Irish did and that has given us a lot of encouragement. We have done a lot of work on our set pieces because that is a key area of the game and has perhaps been our weakness so far.
 
“We are all really disappointed to lose to France. We could have sneaked a draw right at the end but it wasn’t to be. I was fairly happy with my performance but we all know that we still have plenty to work on especially looking ahead to England.
 
“That will be a massive challenge for me and the whole squad but it is one that we will rise to.”

The Dragons second row believes one of the biggest battles on the field at Twickenham will take place in his own position.
 
“It will be a big tester to face the likes of Ben Kay and Danny Grewcock. England have got fantastic strength in depth in the second row,” continued Owen. “With Simon Shaw also involved you have got potentially three British Lion second rows in their pack.

“There’s definitely a risk of a back lash from England, but there again if they had beaten Ireland they would have been on a roll and full of confidence from the Rugby World Cup so all we can do is make sure we perform and not let ourselves down.
 
“We did that in the Rugby World Cup, but at Twickenham it will be a whole different ball game.”