"Exciting opportunity"- Danny Wilson looks ahead to crucial England meeting

Wednesday, 04 February 2026 at 12:10

byHarry Tovey

On Tuesday afternoon, assistant coach Danny Wilson stated in his press conference that it’s a “great opportunity” for Wales to face England on Saturday in Twickenham (KO: 16:40).

Whatever starting XV head coach Steve Tandy selects on Thursday afternoon, they will head to Allianz Stadium having not claimed a victory in the Six Nations since 2023.

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In fact, Wales have not claimed a victory at Twickenham since Scott Williams' try in 2012, which sealed the Triple Crown. But Wilson insists it’s a great opportunity to face an England side who are on a run of 11 consecutive Test match wins.

“It’s a great opportunity that you’re playing a side in form,” began Wilson

“They are a side that’s well put together and put some strong results recently. You’re away from home at Twickenham, and obviously, everything that goes with an England-Wales game.

“So it’s really exciting for us in our journey at the moment. We’re kind of piecing together layers on top of the performances that we put in the autumn regards to our game model, the way we want to play both sides of the ball.

“It’s important that those sorts of performances and those stepping stones of our performance are in place now, so that we can build for the future.”

Tomas Francis is also expected to return to international rugby, as he’s been put to one side following the 2023 Rugby World Cup, due to him playing for Pro D2 side Provence.

But according to Wilson, the tight-head has impressed, and with Cardiff’s Keiron Assiratti out injured, it’s a straight shootout between Francis and Archie Griffin for the starting jersey.

“He (Francis) looks really good. He’s in good nick, there’s no doubt about that. He’s trained really well,” added Wilson.

“A lot of boys have come in with a huge amount of change in the autumn as a group. They’ve got a lot of that under their belt and are building on that.

“Then there are new faces who are picking up a lot of the new for Wales. How quickly they can pick that up is the important bit.

“And Tom being as experienced as he is and the attitude that he shows has been great, and we’re looking forward to seeing more of him.”

Steve Borthwick announced his side on Monday afternoon, and he’s picked a side that will be aiming to extend their unbeaten run to 12.

England, ranked third in the world, in contrast, Wales sit eleventh. They head into the match on the back of only recording wins against Japan since the 2023 World Cup.

In those defeats, Wales endured bruising losses against South Africa (73-0) and England (68-14) in their last Six Nations outing.

“This is a group so passionate about winning for Wales, so passionate about improving,” continued Wilson.

“Our aim at the moment is to make sure we keep doing that step by step to be able to get to a place where the results take care of themselves, if you like.

“As for other parts of Welsh rugby, Six Nations is such an exciting competition, and we get a chance at Twickenham with the first one, and then roll into some really exciting games that hopefully we can put some positive performances together to, as I said, build for what we want to be.”

During the Six Nations launch in Edinburgh, Wales’ captain Dewi Lake spoke about realistic expectations for the tournaments and the importance of targeting home games at Principality Stadium.

These include meetings with France, who will have ten days off before their clash, and then against Scotland and Italy.

Tandy’s side finish with a favourable tie against the Azzuri in Cardiff, which is the encounter that Wales, albeit in Rome, last recorded a victory in the Six Nations.

On whether Wales can surprise a few in the Championship, Wilson said: “If we remain focused on what we need to, which is the hard work we need to put in, building on our game model, on performances and the connection pieces, I think we can build towards those upsets.

“I think we are building towards those upsets, but right this minute and probably for obvious reasons in terms of results, we wouldn’t be favourites going into certain games.

“But I certainly think this group is capable. There’s been patches, scoring four tries against New Zealand and for 50-60 minutes of that game, I think we were extremely competitive.

“There were glimpses against Argentina. We didn’t play as well against Japan, but picked up a game that we needed to win, if that makes sense. So there’s areas I think we’ve built on.

“Steve, and what we’re trying to do here is different to perhaps what’s gone. Building from the base that we’re slowly piecing together is the important part to future success, and more than that, consistent success.”