RUGBY:WHEN WARREN Gatland took charge of Wales at the end of 2007 he was immediately struck by how naturally talented his new charges were.

It was a contrast, he noted, to his time earlier in the decade with Wasps. English players, he deduced, were fitter and mentally tougher than their Welsh counterparts but lacked a rugby instinct.

Gatland has spent much of the past year working on the condition of his squad so that they are not physically inferior to England. The Wales coach sees this afternoon’s game as an opportunity for his players to show they can stand up to opponents who will look to impose themselves.

“The players are in superb shape physically,” Gatland said. “It is an area we have worked hard on because it is going to be key in the World Cup with Samoa and Fiji, as well as South Africa, in our World Cup group. What we have in Wales is players with a natural feel for the game, something that you cannot coach, and, if we can prove ourselves physically, it is a factor that can be decisive in a tight game.”

Since 1987, the World Cup has been a cue for the Welsh Rugby Union to change coaches but at the end of last year the governing body agreed a new contract with Gatland for another four years.

Gatland is concerned that South Africa will be hardened by competitive rugby in a way none of the Six Nations countries will be but he used two training camps in Poland last month to toughen his players mentally as well as physically.

He organised 72 sessions in 20 days, some starting at 5am. When some of the players at the end of the second trip suggested that they were due a reward, a relaxing night and a few drinks, he fixed them with a stare so fierce that a verbal response was not needed.

Gatland has reached the point where coaching has become a matter of fine-tuning. If Wales have too often gone into World Cups armed with neither hope nor expectation, his focus is on toughening up a squad which too often forfeits victory with lapses of concentration. He sees England as ideal opponents because the men in white have, in recent World Cups, shown the virtue of toil and bloody-mindedness.

ENGLAND: D Armitage; M Banahan, M Tuilagi, R Flutey, M Cueto; J Wilkinson, D Care; A Corbisiero, D Hartley, M Stevens; S Shaw, T Palmer; T Croft, L Moody (capt), J Haskell.

WALES: R Priestland; G North, J Davies, J Roberts, S Williams; S Jones, M Phillips; P James, H Bennett, C Mitchell; B Davies, A-W Jones; D Lydiate, S Warburton (capt), T Faletau.

Referee: S Walsh (Australia).