Wales dominated the collisions during their victory over Scotland, while their scrum and driving lineout played a crucial role in getting their Six Nations campaign back on track. Ospreys tighthead Francis played a starring role anchoring the scrum, and touching down for only his second test try.
And the 29-year-old insists Wales need to keep improving if they are to emerge victorious at Twickenham. “Whoever plays for Wales has got to have that mindset that you are going to go out there and dominate,” said Francis.
“England will be a great test, they have got some great forwards, and hopefully we can come on top. We’ll give it all our all. The new rule changes have given us something to focus on by scrummaging as an eight. It’s gone well.
“We probably haven’t got the rewards we wanted but we are just trying to scrummage to the new letter of the law, and paint good pictures for the ref. Hopefully, the more time we do this, the further the new rules go on, the more rewards we’ll get and we’ll keep building as a pack.
“We are still quite an inexperienced pack so the more games we get together the better the set-piece, the scrum, and the maul will come. That’s a big focus for us.”
England lost their opening Six Nations fixture to Scotland, but bounced back to comprehensively beat Italy in Rome. Francis is expecting a very difficult test match this Saturday, but hopes Wales can win at Twickenham for the first time since 2015.
“They looked good against Italy,” said the former Exeter Chiefs prop. “They were one decision against Scotland from getting a good result up in Murrayfield.
“They are a young team who have got plenty of flair and plenty of firepower. Every team this year seems to be a good team, and every game is going to be a good challenge.
“They just looked powerful with runners off 10 and nine. Marcus (Smith) got in the game, and the forwards looked powerful, but that’s the way they play, their DNA – the new England, as they call it. It takes time for players to gel in the tournament, and the tough games are often the hardest to get that unity.
“The more game-time they have, they will improve, and you saw that against Italy. Playing England is always a massive game.
“Luckily we got the win last week which kept the tournament alive for us. We got a good performance after a poor start from our account.
“To go down there and have a crack at them is a great opportunity. I’ve only won there once which was my fourth cap in the World Cup.
“That was one of the best days of my career, and hopefully I can emulate that again.”
