Saturday’s match in Cardiff will be a vital part of Wales’ ongoing Rugby World Cup preparations as the players look to book their places on the plane to Japan.
Warren Gatland’s men were beaten 33-19 defeat by England in the first of their four World Cup warm-up games at Twickenham last Sunday.
They will look to set the record straight when the Red Rose arrive in Cardiff on Saturday for what will be a sold-out Under Armour Summer Series clash.
Tries from Billy Vunipola, Joe Cokanasiga and Luke Cowan-Dickie got England over the line in the first meeting with Gareth Davies, George North and Wyn Jones crossing for the visitors.
Despite the defeat Gatland believes Wales are still heading in the right direction as they edge nearer to the World Cup.
“It was disappointing in terms of the result, but it’s not something we will dwell on too much,” said Gatland of his team’s loss away to England.
“It’s about what we take out of it. There are things to work on and to address.
“There were also some positives as well. We need to make sure that next week’s performance is an improvement.
“We went into the Six Nations with a strategy against England and implemented that pretty well.
“On Sunday we played differently, tried to work out things, and England did what England are really good at. Their scrum was excellent, they drove the line-outs well, and they were pretty direct in the way they played.
“They scored from our errors and we need to be more accurate in attack.
“We addressed a few things at half time and I think we were a lot better in the second half, but from our point of view we think those things are pretty fixable.
“If you stop England getting some momentum at driven line-outs and the scrum – which is something we will work on this week – then that’s 90 per cent of their game.
“We understand that and we will be a lot better for it.”
Wales’ last meeting against England in Cardiff was a 21-13 victory which set them on their way to a Six Nations Grand Slam.
And skipper Alun Wyn Jones, now Welsh rugby’s most capped international with 135 caps, insists Wales will bounce back strongly this Saturday.
“There are things to address, but we would like to think they are all fixable,” said Jones.
“The buzz word is ‘momentum’. We felt we were pressuring England a lot at line-out time but did not convert that pressure.
“And likewise at the scrum when they had a good foundation we were chasing to stop their momentum. There are things we can clearly work on for next week.
“It’s relatively simple – if you have a steady scrum and maul you have momentum and if you don’t, you’re chasing.
“We probably negated more of it after that first 30 minutes, but you don’t really want to be chasing the game like we were in the first half.”
