09 February 2024 , 08:02
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England are keen to ensure their emotions do not get the better of them when they face Wales in the Six Nations on Saturday.
There are a number of young and inexperienced players in Steve Borthwick's squad and captain Jamie George has been keen to ensure they are well-prepared for what will be a high-stakes clash at Twickenham, with the squad's senior players offering words of advice.
"I think it's special it's against Wales. The first thing you think of is the history of the fixture," George told BBC Radio 5 Live. "Our recent record at Twickenham has been poor and we have been very outspoken about how we want Twickenham to be great again, so we have the responsibility to do that and what a privilege that is.
"Usually on Monday we have a tactical meeting about the rugby stuff but Steve parked that for a bit this week to talk about the opportunity we have to be back at home against Wales and we touched on the emotion. Then the senior players took over, which was great."
Among those who spoke at the meeting was prop Joe Marler, who has been involved in clashes with Samson Lee and Alun Wyn Jones in previous years. Marler was hit with a two-match ban and a fine for calling Lee "Gypsy boy" during a 2016 match, while he was banned for ten weeks for grabbing Wyn Jones' genitals in 2020.
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And the 33-year-old spoke about those incidents in the meeting, warning the younger players they need to prepare themselves for "whatever bombs Warren Gatland throws out in the week".
Marler wrote in his column for the Daily Mail : "An image that always sticks in my head is from 2019, when their old captain Alun Wyn Jones did an absolute number on Kyle Sinckler. There's a picture of Sink losing his head and Alun Wyn is just there smiling at him.
Marler warned England's young players to prepare themselves for "whatever bombs Warren Gatland throws out in the week" (Getty Images)"He wound him up, got into his head and squeezed penalty after penalty out of him. I remember getting my arse handed to me at every scrum by Adam Jones back in the early days and then getting subbed off after 44 minutes.
"I was thinking: 'Oh my god, I'm never going to play for England again.' A lot of players in our team are experiencing this fixture for the first time. We had a meeting about it on Monday night to try to best prepare them for it.
"Jamie George approached some of us older guys and asked if we would share a few of our experiences. We talked about the incidents with Kyle, Samson, Alun Wyn and told the guys to prepare for whatever bombs Warren Gatland throws out in the week."