Gats knows how to beat blitz but do Wales have the players to do it? – Andy Goode

Warren Gatland might be claiming to have introduced the blitz defence and know exactly how to beat it but whether he has the players to do so is another matter.

He’s right that a new defensive system like England’s does take time to bed in and another week on the training field obviously won’t be enough to iron out all the creases so I’m sure Wales will unpick it at times but they might not have the personnel to take it apart completely.

The first thing you want when you’re trying to beat the blitz is a fly half with all the tools in his locker and the experience to know when to use each one and Ioan Lloyd is starting an international for the first time.

In fact, he’s only really establishing himself as a number 10 at club level this season after moving to the Scarlets from Bristol, where he was deployed on the wing, at full back and even at inside centre but very rarely at fly half.

Lloyd's introduction at 10 helped spark Wales' remarkable second-half comeback (Photo Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

He’s only 22-years-old and is an exciting talent with the pace to dart through any gap that might open up but whether he has the nous and composure to pick the right pass or kick when bodies are flying at him remains to be seen.

If anything you don’t run on to the ball as much because you’re attracting the defenders to you and often the first couple of attackers are standing still and shifting the ball into space in an attempt to find an edge.

If you move onto the ball too quickly, you’re taking decision-making time away from yourself because the defensive line is coming up so fast and mistakes are far more likely to happen.

The first time I really came up against a blitz defence was against Wasps when Gatland was head coach and then I faced it against South Africa in 2006 when Bryan Habana was flying in off his wing all the time.

They were two incredibly good sides and this current England team doesn’t have the same cohesion and isn’t at the same level yet but when you’re facing a blitz defence as a flay half there is a very small margin for error.

Lloyd will obviously have done his analysis and he’ll be expecting to see similar pictures to the ones he saw last week when there were dog-legs in England’s defence against Italy and players weren’t on the same page.

George Ford of England speaks with Felix Jones, Coach of England, during the England Rugby Training session at Pennyhill Park on February 05, 2024 in Bagshot, England. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

There’s no doubt Felix Jones is attempting to implement a defence similar to the one utilised by South Africa at the World Cup but you didn’t always see them blitzing and that’s the same for England, it’s all about decision-making.

That takes time to develop and when you are using a blitz, you are inevitably going to get cut open at times but there has to be a pace and intensity in your scramble defence to make up for the initial errors or instances of the attacking team cutting through.

England didn’t quite have that last week and that’ll be something they’ll have been working on in training in addition to trying to get their communication right so Wales don’t make as many line breaks as Italy did.

There’s no doubt it helps having an imposing athlete like a Damian de Allende when you’re operating a defence like England are trying to and neither Henry Slade nor Fraser Dingwall are in that mould but that doesn’t mean they can’t do it effectively.

Dingwall in particular missed five tackles against Italy and that will naturally lead to some criticism but he isn’t used to defending in the same way at Northampton and it’s all about getting more comfortable with the system and trusting the men outside and inside you.

England's Fraser Dingwall misses a tackle on Italy's wing Monty Ioane (Photo by Andreas Solaro/ AFP via Getty Images)

The fact that this is just the second time since 2016 that England have named an unchanged starting XV, the other being the 2019 World Cup final, shows that Steve Borthwick understands he needs to give the players time to build that cohesion.

He dropped in a comment about only having three training sessions in the lead up to the Italy game and that was surprising but I’m sure they’ve been spending plenty of time together trying to build up an understanding of what is expected in the new systems.

There were certainly more decent shapes in attack in Rome than we’ve seen from England for quite some time so hopefully there’ll be another small step up in that department after another week on the training field.

It’s always going to take time but I think even more patience might be required when you consider that there might be three Saints in the backline but they’re not really connected to one another and there are no other club combinations anywhere at all in this England team.

Wales are in a rebuilding phase of their own and haven’t won at Twickenham in the Six Nations for 12 years since 2012 either so it’s the ideal second fixture for England to have on the back of a first hit out against the Azzurri.

They’ll be travelling with confidence after scoring 26 unanswered points in the last 35 minutes against Scotland but it’s a different task to do that right from the off away from home against your biggest rival.

George North - PA

The return of George North with his physical prowess and experience will certainly help them both in attack and defence but it’ll be interesting to see how many times Wales are able to get his hands on the ball in a bit of space.

It wouldn’t be an England v Wales build-up without a deflection or two from Warren Gatland and his comments about Immanuel Feyi-Waboso have caused a bit of a stir but that’s all a storm in a teacup and it’s his words about the blitz defence that could come back to bite him.

The proof of the pudding will be in the eating but if you’re going to say that you introduced the blitz defence so you know how to beat it, you must be pretty confident your players are going to do just that.

There’ll be ebbs and flows at Twickenham and neither team will get it right every time in attack or defence but I don’t know if this young Welsh side does have the knowledge and ability to navigate their way around, through or over the blitz defence consistently.

It is an unpredictable year in the Six Nations with so many changes after the World Cup but I think England will avoid an upset with a more convincing 12-point win and the Grand Slam dream will remain alive, for another week at least!