Chris Robshaw's Six Nations column: England must be ready for Cardiff storm
Former England Rugby captain Chris Robshaw discusses the atmosphere at the Principality Stadium, as well as the 2015 tunnel standoff, ahead of England's 2025 Guinness Men's Six Nations fixture with Wales.
Going into the final weekend of the Six Nations, England have given themselves the best chance of taking advantage of a France slip up thanks to that big win over Italy.
For me, Tom Willis scoring early set the standard and said that England were up for it and were going to go after Italy, which they did with gusto, particularly that 15-minute period after half-time.
It was a great performance, but a special mention must go to Jamie George on his 100th England Test cap. He took a bit of time to start for England, but since then his experience and level-headedness have been so beneficial for the team, especially with a young group around him.
As well as George, the likes of Maro Itoje and Elliot Daly all put their hand up and were some of the best players on the pitch. They really led by example and that's what you want from the experienced guys and, given the pressure the team were undergoing into the tournament, it’s great to see how they’ve given themselves a shot at the title.
The Principality atmosphere
However, there isn’t much time for England to savour that performance, with a huge trip to the Principality Stadium coming up on Saturday.
Cardiff is a daunting place to go at times and the players need to appreciate the storm they're going into.
It doesn’t really matter that Wales haven't won in 16 games; they are going to be up for it. We went there in 2013 looking for the Grand Slam and we knew about the ferocity, but we probably didn't appreciate the psyche of what it would mean for an England team to win a campaign in Cardiff.
The Principality Stadium is an incredible place to play, and the atmosphere will be electric. The roof will also be closed, which keeps the atmosphere in and makes the sound echo around.
I remember going to Cardiff in 2015 and preparing for it at Pennyhill Park by closing all the doors and training with stadium noise on full blast. It makes it hard to pick up lineout calls and things like that, so you have to make up hand signals because you might not even hear it.
This was also the year of the tunnel stand-off, where we refused to go out until the Wales team were ready to come out too.
We'd heard they wanted us to go on the pitch early with all the lights on and the fans booing us. In that atmosphere a minute can feel like an hour, so we wanted to get a bit of control back.
We were waiting for them to come out and when we didn't see them, we stood our ground as when you’re playing away you need to get any advantage you can. I didn't realise at the time it was going to be a big deal, but it's still spoken about now.
Wales still have danger men
Wales might be on a poor run of form, but they are still a potential banana skin for England. We’ve seen how they have improved over the last few games. -there are green shoots starting to appear under a new coaching group.
For all the youth in the team, I think Taulupe Faletau has had such a fantastic impact since he came back and his longevity is phenomenal. He made his debut not long after I did and is still going a long time after I stopped playing.
He's an incredible athlete and had a great game last week against Scotland, he just has this ability to make things happen and he acts as a bit of a ‘get out of jail free’ card because he’s that good.
Gareth Anscombe and Jarrod Evans have also had a good impact in the backline and freed them up a little, and as a result we’ve seen a bit more of a free-flowing Wales.
They have also had one extra day of rest, which could have a difference given that both sides are coming to the end of a long, intense tournament. However, the main focus for Wales will be ending their losing streak and getting one over on England.
Unfortunately for England, they are in the difficult position of having to get a bonus point to give themselves the best chance of lifting the Six Nations trophy.
With a lot of these ‘must-win' games, there is a lot of emotion riding on what could happen. England know they need to get a bonus point, but they need to not get too excited, too early.
They need to build pressure and build a score but focus solely on themselves rather than on Wales or whatever might happen in Paris in the late kick-off.
Most people didn't give England much of a chance going into this campaign, but sometimes you need a little bit of luck at this level and it’s now starting to go their way. Hopefully that continues into Saturday’s game.
