Twickenham Stadium will be the venue for Wales’ next RBS 6 Nations assignment and no sooner had the dust started to settle on the 19-10 triumph over previously unbeaten France than everyone’s thoughts began to turn to the ‘big one’ against Eddie Jones’ England side.
Wales beat England on their own patch in the World Cup to condemn them to third place in their pool. That meant the 2016 hosts had to watch the knock-out stages from the stands.
The latest Welsh victory over France maintained Wales’ unbeaten record this year and pushed Warburton’s side to the top of the Championship ahead of the games between Italy and Scotland and England v Ireland.
“You haven’t seen the best of us yet and I don’t think you have seen the best of any side in the Six Nations this season,” said the Welsh skipper.
“We’re undefeated in three games and it sets it up a massive game for two weeks time in Twickenham. Everyone knows what is on that match – it’s a match the fans want to see.
“The England games are honestly some of the toughest Test matches I’ve been involved in. Twickenham is one of my favourite places to play rugby – it’ll be a fantastic atmosphere and the England players will be highly motivated.”
Wales head coach Warren Gatland admitted “there’ll be a lot to play for in two weeks now” after commending his side’s defensive effort against the Grand Slam chasing French. His only concern ahead of the next game is a calf injury suffered by record cap holder Gethin Jenkins.
“It was a really tough Test match. We spoke at half-time about keeping our patience and our composure and that we’d get opportunities, so we were really pleased to go 19-3 up with 10 minutes to go,” said Gatland.
“We didn’t get the rub of the green on a few things, but you’ve just got to cope with that. I told the players after the game, the most pleasing thing was that defensively the things that we’d worked on, like shutting down their off-load game, worked pretty well for us.
“I think they trusted the system defensively and trusted each other. From the coaches’ point of view that was very pleasing.
“It’s going to be another tough Test match at Twickenham. England are a quality team and it’s a great stadium – although we love going and playing there.
“We’ve been there on a few occasions and won, so we have just got to have that confidence and belief that we are able to do it. That’s why the win over France was so important because the victory keeps us in the championship – if we’d lost, we would basically have been out.”
