STUART LANCASTER IS is bracing himself for a mouth-watering Six Nations opener tonight as England look to exact revenge on Wales at Millennium Stadium.
England and Wales will kick-off the 16th edition of the Six Nations, with Lancaster’s men the underdogs in Cardiff following a record loss to their hosts in 2013.
Wales retained the championship via a 30-3 victory almost two years ago — their biggest ever win against England.
England return to the Welsh capital confident they can make a winning start to their Six Nations campaign.
“It doesn’t get any better as a set-up to the championship,” Lancaster.
“It’s an iconic rugby stadium and an iconic fixture. The history between the two countries in rugby is huge. To kick it off on a Friday night … makes it a big game.
“The odds for Friday are irrelevant to me. We played pretty much the same Welsh team last year and we definitely believe we can go to Cardiff and win.
“We 100% respect that they have many British and Irish Lions, but equally we have confidence and belief that we can do the job. If we don’t believe that, we’ll have no chance.”
Lancaster stopped short of signalling his intent for revenge, but the 45-year-old said the 2013 defeat still haunts his team.
“No doubt about it, that particular one hurt because of the context around it – the title and Slam were at stake. Clearly it is going to hurt,” Lancaster added.
“But that’s not the only game you go back and analyse. You go back to last year’s game – we scored two tries and played good rugby throughout.
“Of course it is in the back of your minds, but there’s been a lot of rugby played since then. The context of this particular game and two years ago is completely different.”
