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No Twickenham hang-ups for Gatland

Twickenham Stadium during a game between England and Wales.

No Twickenham hang-ups for Gatland

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Taking his Wales team to Twickenham won’t hold any fears for Warren Gatland.

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The Wales head coach has nothing but good memories of games at the home of English rugby having won titles with both club and country at the 82,000-seater venue.

And with England players calling on the crowd to get behind them in Round 2 of the Six Nations this weekend to make life even more difficult for the young Welsh side, Gatland is looking to instill confidence in his group.

“The first four times I went there we won three Premiership finals and a Heineken Cup final with Wasps. I don’t find it intimidating at all!” said Gatland.

What he failed to point out is that his first game in charge of Wales in 2008 was at Twickenham when his Welsh side won there for the first time in 20 years. His ‘Class of 2012’ then lifted the Triple Crown at HQ before his 2015 team knocked England out of their own World Cup.

“It’s a great stadium to enter when you see all the fans there. I love the atmosphere and it’s even more special if you can walk away with a win,” he added.

The Wales team arrives at Twickenham for a World Cup game in 2015.

“That’s not easy to do, but we’ve prepared well this week, and we need to build on the second half against Scotland last weekend.

“For us, it’s about starting well and stopping the crowd singing ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ too early and too often. We need to silence them a bit – that becomes an important factor.

“We need to start a lot better than last week, and we need to reduce the amount of turnovers. We had around 38 per cent of turnovers against us last week and that really hurt us.

“The second-half was reflective of how we played against Australia in the World Cup, with a 10 or 11 per cent turnover rate. That makes a huge difference.
“A number of those things were in our own control, with penalties or lineouts that we weren’t accurate enough. We worked hard this week on trying to rectify those things.

“We wanted to play with some tempo. That was the message at half-time – go out and play some rugby. We want to continue in that frame, as the make-up of the side – from a physical point of view – has changed from in the past.

“It’s the nature of the players coming through. We need to adapt and play differently, we need to play with the players we’ve got and where we can create attacking opportunities.”

New Wales skipper Dafydd Jenkins will be leading a side showing a number of changes from the 27-26 defeat to Scotland in Round 1, with loose head prop Gareth Thomas and centre George North coming back into the starting XV, while lock Will Rowlands returns to the replacements bench.

“England v Wales is always massive because of the history involved in the fixture. It is a must win game for us because of where we are in the tournament,” said Jenkins.

“It is all about winning – it doesn’t really mean anything if you don’t win. Twickenham would be a great place to win for any Welshman, but especially for me as I play over there.

“I’m looking to get one over on Henry Slade and my Exeter Chiefs clubmates.”

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