Wales have belief to pull off shock - Wainwright

Aaron Wainwright says Wales travel to Twickenham with a belief that they can produce a performance good enough to trouble England.

Wales suffered an 11-try hammering in their last Six Nations meeting, but Wainwright says the autumn campaign gave hope of a resurgence.

Despite three heavy defeats, there were glimpses of attacking intent and promising combinations that signalled the new Steve Tandy era.

"You saw in the autumn what we could do when we were on the money," said number eight Wainwright.

"We spoke about belief. There's belief within the group and that's what we are going to be thriving on at the weekend.

"We are going to go out there and believe that we can put a performance in that's going to be one to win the game.

"If we can do that and give something for the fans to get behind then that's great."

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Comeback from crisis

After five straight losses in 2024, questions began to surround Steve Borthwick's future as England head coach.

Safe to say those questions have been answered as he has masterminded an 11-Test winning streak that has propelled his side to third in the world.

England are now, once again, considered genuine contendors for the Six Nations Championship and next year's Rugby World Cup.

Dragons star Wainwright is hopeful Wales can follow a similar trajectory under Tandy.

"They've [England] obviously got a bunch of world class players and world class operators," he said

"If you're looking from the outside at them and comparing that to what we want to be, I suppose it's just everyone being on the same page collectively.

"When they tick, everything is just so clean, smooth and fluid, that's what we're trying to go after, everyone knowing their role and once each person's focus is on that everything else falls into place."

If they are going to compete at Allianz Stadium on Saturday, Wales have to tighten up defensively.

In autumn defeats by Argentina, New Zealand South Africa, they shipped a whopping 29 tries and 177 points.

Fortunately defence is a speciality area for Tandy, who was Scotland and the British and Irish Lions' defence coach before linking up with Wales last summer.

"Defensively we need to be right on the money," said Wainwright, "we've spoken about fronting up."

"Can we put a performance in that's going to make the fans proud? That's what our focus has been on at the start of the week, showing our identity when we get out there," he said.

"We saw a glimpse of it in the autumn. but can we do that for 80 minutes and really put in a performance that makes the fans proud and show what we are about?"

Wainwright and Welsh rugby hopes so.