'The Welsh are not very keen on us' - Vunipola fears Wales backlash

Mako Vunipola fears England’s visit to Cardiff will bring out the best in Wales despite the turmoil engulfing the game across the border. Warren Gatland’s players have threatened to go on strike for the Guinness Six Nations round-three match on February 25 because of a dispute with their union over its freeze on professional contracts.

Heavy defeats by Ireland and Scotland have placed Wales in wooden spoon contention, but Vunipola believes that against England they will be driven by their sense of grievance and the prospect of humbling their fiercest rivals.

“They will definitely be a galvanised team. When you have your backs against the wall there is nothing else to do but to come out fighting,” Vunipola said. “I have no idea what is going on off the field, but on the field it can only help them make it simple and give it their all.

“We must expect the best out of them. The weeks before – round one and two – they mean nothing. You feel the history when you play Wales. The Welsh are not very keen on us.

“When we play them we know that we are always getting their best. We know that they are a good side – and when things aren’t going their way they’re even better.”

England have not won at the Principality Stadium since 2017 and have endured some torrid afternoons there during the Six Nations, most notably in 2013 and 2021 when they fell to heavy defeats. Vunipola, who describes Gatland as a “serial winner”, has outlined the response needed if the tide turns against Steve Borthwick’s visitors.

“When the crowd gets behind the Welsh it obviously lifts them. I definitely feel like the game can very easily get away from you in Cardiff,” the Saracens prop said. “Individuals are different in the way they react and when one or two things start going their way and they get a bit of energy from the crowd, they get behind them, and then we start getting on the back foot.

“What you have got to learn from that is to stick together and get even tighter and make sure that we’re not trying to solve it ourselves individually. Go back to the basics, the foundations of our game, and try and claw back the momentum.”

England will be aiming to make further improvements to their scrum after 2022 ended with the indignity of their set-piece being rated the worst of any tier-one nation. Under the guidance of forwards coach Richard Cockerill, urgent repair work has been undertaken with Vunipola among those who were left aghast by how far it had fallen in comparison to their rivals.

“We knew the scrum wasn’t where we wanted it to be, but we didn’t realise how bad it was. There was a bit of a shock,” Vunipola said. “As a group of front rows, we take pride in the scrum so that was tough to hear. We’ve had to look at ourselves on a deeper level.”