The friendly international will give both Warren Gatland and Eddie Jones the chance to get their players battle hardened for their respective summer tours. While Gatland takes his Welsh side to the home of the reigning world champions for three Tests against the All Blacks, Jones will lead his England team to Australia.
But Ospreys hooker Scott Baldwin believes the chance to erase the memories of a horrendous first-half performance against Dylan Hartley’s England side two months ago in the 25-21 championship defeat that effectively cost Wales the title at the same venue will be motivation enough this weekend for the visiting team.
Wales did, of course, beat England on their own patch at the Rugby World Cup to help knock them out at the pool stages. So, Sunday’s match is the decider for the season.
“It’s a chance of redemption. If we can win up there it will put us in a good place going into the tour,” said Baldwin. “It’s a full-blown test match on Sunday, so we’ll have to be right on the money both mentally and physically to get a result.
“It’s almost as if we’ve had a three-test series against England in the last 12 months. They are missing a couple of players, but there’s a lot of strength-in-depth in England at the moment and the majority of their Grand Slam squad will be there for them at the weekend.
“They’ll be missing George Kruis and Maro Itoje, but they can bring in Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes, who are not inexperienced boys. They are going to want to put a mark down going forward to their tour to Australia.
“And they’ve got some youngsters in the squad who will want to make a big statement. I don’t think it’s going to take anything away from the game at the weekend with some of their players missing.”
While England will be without the Saracens and Exeter Chiefs players who are playing in the Aviva Premiership final the day before – Kruis, Itoje, Jamie George, Mako and Billy Vunipola, Owen Farrell, Jack Nowell, and Jonathan Davies, Henry Slade – Wales will also be without French based players Luke Charteris, as well as Tomas Francis.
Wales skipper Sam Warburton will also sit out this weekend’s game as he continues his recovery from a shoulder injury. He is due to return in time for the first Test against New Zealand in Auckland on 11 June.
