Eddie Jones has told England to put pressure on Wales’s inexperienced 24-year-old fly-half Rhys Patchell during the Six Nations clash at Twickenham on Saturday.
Patchell, who will be winning his seventh cap, was influential in the 34-7 rout of Scotland in Cardiff last weekend, but the injury-hit Wales – who are without the playmakers Dan Biggar and Rhys Priestland – were widely written off leading into that match and Jones insists England at home are a different proposition.
“Every time Rhys Patchell looks up he’s going to see Jonathan Joseph in his vision – it’s not a great sight,” Jones said. “Wales have to get the ball wide and Patchell hasn’t played much Test match rugby. He’s a young guy, he’s inexperienced and is their third-choice 10.
“He’s got to get the ball wide and that’s going to be a big job. It will be different to playing against Scotland. Scotland couldn’t cope with the expectation and now he’s got to cope with the expectation of playing well. Patchell will have to find guys around him to help because he’ll be under some heat.
“Wales played really well against Scotland but it’s going to be different on Saturday – they had no expectation on them last Saturday but this week they come full of expectation. Everyone has been telling them how well they played. Warren Gatland’s been talking a lot this week. He’s confident. They’re confident.”
It is the first time Jones has sought to engage Wales in verbal hostilities before the eagerly awaited showdown between rivals who completed convincing victories in round one.
Quick guide
England men’s team to face Wales
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15 Mike Brown (Harlequins 65 caps)
14 Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby 29 caps)
13 Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby 36 caps)
12 Owen Farrell (Saracens 54 caps)
11 Jonny May (Leicester Tigers 30 caps)
10 George Ford (Leicester Tigers 41 caps)
9 Danny Care (Harlequins 77 caps)
1 Mako Vunipola (Saracens 45 caps)
2 Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints 90 caps)
3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers 78 caps)
4 Joe Launchbury (Wasps 48 caps)
5 Maro Itoje (Saracens 15 caps)
6 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints 62 caps)
7 Chris Robshaw (Harlequins 60 caps)
8 Sam Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs 4 caps)
16 Jamie George (Saracens 21 caps)
17 Alec Hepburn (Exeter Chiefs 1 cap)
18 Harry Williams (Exeter Chiefs 6 caps)
19 George Kruis (Saracens 22 caps)
20 Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby 4 caps)
21 Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens 27 caps)
22 Ben Te’o (Worcester Warriors 9 caps)
23 Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs 24 caps)
Gatland stated this week that England’s six-day turnaround following their 46-15 victory against Italy would count against them, but Jones used the team announcement on Thursday to hit back.
The England head coach said: “I can remember 18 or 24 months ago someone at the Rugby Football Union, whose name I don’t recollect at the moment, coming in and saying, ‘You play Italy on Sunday and Wales on Saturday, is that OK?’ No problem, that’s the draw, that’s how we prepare for it. So we’ve had 18 months to prepare for this turnaround.
“Is that difficult? It’s difficult, it’s difficult if you haven’t used your 18 months well. We’ve used our 18 months well. We’ve had a great preparation.”