Warren Gatland’s men are out to strengthen their bid for a third Six Nations title in five seasons at Twickenham on Saturday. A repeat of their heroic Rugby World Cup triumph would lift Wales above their old rivals in the standings heading into the final match against Italy.
A fierce back-row showdown will provide a mouthwatering sub-plot at Rugby HQ. The Welsh trio of Lydiate, Taulupe Faletau and Sam Warburton were instrumental in the hard-fought victory over France, but they will be tasked with keeping a certain Billy Vunipola quiet this weekend. The Saracens no.8 made 91 metres with ball-in-hand in England’s 21-10 victory over Ireland alongside James Haskell and Chris Robshaw. And Lydiate is expecting a hard-hitting confrontation.
He said: “It’s certainly going to be a big, physical battle in the back-row. Their back-row have been going well, and they have some real strength in depth there, which makes their boys play even better when the get the chance. It’s the same for us.”
Wales have only conceded four tries so far in the competition, and will be hoping to keep it tight at Twickenham again. And Lydiate wants Warren Gatland’s side to express themselves more in attack.
He said: “We always want to improve, there are things in our game that we they and improve week in-week out. But hopefully we can put a good performance in on Saturday. It would be nice to score a few more tries, our defence stepped up a gear against France, whereas the standard may not have been where we set it. We’re just trying to improve week on week.
“We’ve taken confidence from how this competition has gone on, we felt disappointed coming away from Ireland wit a draw. But we haven’t lost since then and we’re going into this game with confidence and so are England, so we’re really looking forward to the challenge.”
