Wales captain Dan Biggar is hoping his side can repeat their 2015 World Cup heroics against England at Twickenham on Saturday as the two sides clash in Round 3 of the Guinness Six Nations.
Biggar is one of just four players in the Welsh 23 who were there on that historic day, as Wales beat England 28-25 as underdogs – the last time his side won at Twickenham, having since experience defeats in the 2016, 2018 and 2020 Championships.
Wales are gearing up to face England without Alun Wyn Jones for the first time since 2006, after their talismanic second row suffered a shoulder injury during the Autumn Nations Series, which he is still yet to recover from.
And while Biggar feels that experience of winning in Cardiff is important, he is aware that the sides are much changed since that World Cup glory seven years ago.
He said: “It’s difficult isn’t it because both teams are so different from when we won in 2015, and we haven’t had that much success in recent visits to Twickenham.
“So we realise that it’s a really difficult place to go and win, but I think what we’ve got in our group at the minute is a lot of players who don’t fear going to Twickenham really because they haven’t had a huge amount of experience of it and we’re sort of going there as underdogs with England being at home and in pretty good form as well.
“It’s positive that a few of us have managed to win at Twickenham, but we’re also under no illusions that it’s a very different squad, England are in a very different place, as are we.
“I think the biggest thing for us is that we start well, because the last couple of times that I’ve played England at Twickenham, we’ve been 15-3 down or 20-10 by half-time or within 20 minutes and it’s a really difficult task to claw England back.
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“So it’s imperative that we start the game really well and take the game to England.”
Wales head coach Wayne Pivac echoed the thoughts of his captain that it would be a tough afternoon but said that his squad were relishing the challenge.
He said: “I’ve only been there coaching Wales the one time, but it’s a massive stadium, it’s a massive crowd, so it just adds to the flavour of the match.
“History would suggest it is a difficult place to go and get a result but we’re certainly going there with that aim in mind.
“The big challenge for us I think is having the same attitude and having the same willingness to throw ourselves about the park that we did last week in front of 70,000 Welsh supporters and do that on the road in front of a hostile crowd of mainly English supporters so, that’s been the big challenge and one of things we’ve talked about during the week.
“It’s being able to compete with the English forward pack which are a big pack, making sure that we’re disciplined, and we don’t give them too many in roads in terms of the line out and let them get the drive going.
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“Obviously they’ve got a pretty good scrum, so it’s a big challenge up front for us and obviously we need to back that up in defence across the whole XV.
“It’s an exciting time of the competition for us and roll on Saturday we’ll see how we go.”
