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'Welsh teams are just twice as tough when they’re playing the English'
By Josh Raisey
Former England wing Jonny May has said he would rather Wales had won against Scotland last weekend in round one of the Guinness Six Nations, rather than his former side facing a side team "fuelled by an emotional reaction" this Saturday at Twickenham.
Warren Gatland's team narrowly lost 27-26 to Scotland at the Principality Stadium in their first match of the Championship, coming close to overturning a 27-0 deficit in the second half.
The loss, May wrote in his Six Nations Rugby column, will only add to "the eternal motivation any Wales team has when they're facing England." Combined with the fact that "Welsh teams are just twice as tough when they’re playing the English," according to May, it promises for a close encounter in round two.
"Although only one team is heading to Twickenham with a win this weekend, Wales will have similar levels of motivation," the 78-cap England winger wrote.
"They’re sat on a loss and, truthfully, I’d rather they were coming here off the back of a win.
"That sums up why it’s so hard to be a top team that wins week in, week out: coming up against a team that’s fuelled by an emotional reaction to a loss the week before is hard. It still surprises me how significant a factor that is.
"You see it in the Gallagher Premiership all the time. Teams will come out full throttle when their backs are against the wall. And all this is added to the eternal motivation any Wales team has when they’re facing England."
May did also highlight that England will have motivation of their own following their 27-24 win over Italy at the Stadio Olimpico.
While Steve Borthwick's side did register a victory - their first in the opening round of the Six Nations since 2019 - it was not a wholly impressive performance, where their new defensive system was picked apart in the first half for two fine Italy tries.
The frustration from that performance will provide England with motivation this week, who will field an unchanged starting XV in London against a Wales XV that has seen seven changes from the Scotland loss.
"It can be hard being an England player sometimes because - quite rightly - there is so much expectation on you to perform well," May wrote.
"If they didn’t beat Italy by 40 points then it wasn’t going to be good enough. In a way, it will be beneficial for England to sit with that frustration for a week. They’ll be pleased to have won, but they won’t be buzzing. That’ll help us getting back to Twickenham this weekend against Wales. You use that frustration to get better.
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Latest Comments
Agreed. As a Saffa I have much respect for the ABs. I also have to say given any option I would ONLY prefer to lose to ABs. To lose to England is probably the most embarrassing think to happen to either of us.
There was a time when both of us lost to England and we both hated it. Thankfully those days are behind us. Kudos to you guys, kudos to ABs. But dear old BS seems to hate us Boks. No idea why.
Go to commentsI got the sense that holding him to it was kickback from SB and the rfu smarting at being jilted quite so soon, so unexpectedly and so publicly.
Seem to remember that they spoke to Gustard before appointing Joe and you really have to think he would have come in at a higher level?
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