In the newly spruced-up England dressing rooms, a crimson punchbag hangs invitingly in the warm-up pit and the cross of St George is splashed around like bunting. On a table, a ghetto blaster sits ready to thump out combative dance music from the Ministry of Sound. England can forget about the Grand Design. Today is all about obliterating the Welsh.
Defeat for England at Twickenham would equal their worst winless record of eight matches set in 197172 when the Welsh were a force of nature and the English dazzled victims. Clive Woodward is riding to the edge of the precipice as his battered team hunt a first victory since the opening Test against Argentina way back in May. Style and experimentation and the 1999 World Cup are irrelevant. Breaking a losing habit is all that counts.
Rescuing England from trauma has never been high on the list of Welsh priorities and Kevin Bowring's team will see the apprehension in the home team's eyes at 2.00 p.m. England's meat-packers bullied the Celts up front for so long that a mighty desire for vengeance has built up. Not just that, but Wales are claiming to be on the verge of yet another renaissance and their backs have the pace and power to teach Woodward and his fellow English reformers a thing or two.
Woodward's dream went missing in Paris two Saturdays ago and there has been pressure on him to return to the same old brand of grim functionalism. They can be artists some other time, the argument runs, but must be winning artisans today.
"Having to listen to ridicule (after the defeat in Paris) was quite hard," said Woodward's assistant John Mitchell at Twickenham yesterday. "I wouldn't say I'd slit my wrists, but I'd certainly question my own ability if we play again the way we did against France."
England will be led on to the field by Jeremy Guscott as he wins his 50th cap. There the romance and bonhomie will end.
"I can't be thinking about my 50th cap when I've got Scott Gibbs opposite me," said Guscott as the Wales full-back Neil Jenkins was metronomically practising his kicks. "The Welsh back-line is as good as anyone's and Alan Bateman (Gibbs's midfield partner) is probably the best centre in the world," Guscott said. Guscott ought to bring to England's attacking play the kind of dizzying and elusive surges that had Wales spinning on their heels when he came on for Jon Sleightholme in Cardiff last March. How different English fortunes looked then. Jack Rowell's "interactive rugby" at least gave them a semblance of forward momentum, even if the series of great autumn challenges they were heading towards turned out to be a granite wall.
England are a brave and muscular bunch who can grapple their way back into matches even when their technical and tactical capabilities look as weak as they did in Paris a fortnight ago. But there is a suspicion that a sequence of physical poundings coupled with several poor results has taken the edge off them.
A promising rallying cry would be to repeat the performance England somehow mustered when they were last at Twickenham and the All Blacks were held to a 26-all draw.
It is easy to forget that of the Five Nations, only England were forced by a sadistic fixtures-organiser into four Tests (on succesive Saturdays) against the world's three strongest nations. More muscle bulk and a more breathless rhythm to games means ever more bruising collisions and there are those who believe that only now is the cumulative damage from the Lions tour and that draining autumn programme really starting to emerge.
It showed in Lawrence Dallaglio in Paris when his surges took him across the field rather than down it. "He hasn't had a rest since the Lions trip and he may be required to go on a tour to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa this summer," Mitchell said. "He'll get back on July 6th and domestic rugby will start again on August 26th. You only have to look at the amount of tape on these players to see what they go through."
Dallaglio is English rugby's future, a flinty, line-leading captain with a clear head and voice. But against the hungry Welsh, he is facing another ferociously intense 80 minutes. If England lose heavily, Dallaglio's body may not be the only casualty of the weekend.
England: M Perry (Bath); D Rees (Sale), W Greenwood (Leicester), J Guscott (Bath), A Healey (Leicester); P Grayson (Northampton), K Bracken (Saracens); J Leonard (Harlequins), R Cockerill (Leicester), P Vickery (Gloucester), M Johnson (Leicester), G Archer (Newcastle), L Dallaglio (Wasps, capt), N Back (Leicester), R Hill (Saracens). Replacements: M Catt (Bath), P de Glanville (Bath), M Dawson (Northampton), T Diprose (Saracens), D Grewcock (Saracens), D Garforth (Leicester), D West (Leicester).
Wales: N Jenkins (Pontypridd); G Thomas (Cardiff), A Bateman (Richmond), S Gibbs (Swansea), N Walker (Cardiff); A Thomas (Swansea), R Howley (Cardiff, capt); A Lewis (Cardiff), B Williams (Richmond), D Young (Cardiff), G Llewellyn (Harlequins), M Voyle (Llanelli), C Charvis (Swansea), M Williams (Pontypridd), S Quinnell (Richmond). Replacements: W Proctor (Llanelli), L Davies (Cardiff), P John (Pontypridd), R Appleyard (Swansea), C Stephens (Bridgend), L Mustoe (Cardiff), J Humphreys (Cardiff).
Referee: C Hawke (New Zealand).
Touch judges: J Fleming (Scotland), J Dume (France).
