‘You have to roll your sleeves up’: Biggar says character counts against England

With his team huddled around him in the dressing room of Cardiff’s National Stadium, Wales’ captain Phil Bennett delivered a speech that has gone down in rugby folklore. Stoking the fires of Welsh pride and pressing the pressure point of national insecurity, he called on his fellow patriots to perform their civic duty and teach their better resourced neighbours a lesson.

This rousing call worked. With their blood sufficiently heated, Wales won the match – contested on 5 March 1977 – 14-9. On Saturday, another captain wearing a red jersey with 10 on his back will be tasked with motivating his charges before facing their fiercest foes.

“Sometimes very little is needed to be said,” said Dan Biggar, downplaying the importance of a pre-planned speech. “It’s very much down to the individual. I’d like to think that in a pivotal weekend in the Six Nations against England at Twickenham there won’t be too much needed said from an emotional level to get us going.”

Biggar, who lives in England and plays club rugby with Northampton, was cautious about using the same belligerent language as his predecessor Bennett. Even though he sought to dampen the jingoism he conceded that this game is one that Welsh fans most look forward to when the fixtures are released. For them, the significance of beating England transcends log positions and the context of the Six Nations Championship.

But beating England and beating England at Twickenham are two different prospects. Wales have not won there since the momentous 2015 World Cup group match when Biggar’s late penalty was the difference. In four of their five subsequent defeats, a worrying pattern has emerged.

In the 2016 Six Nations, Antony Watson’s 30th-minute converted try opened a 16-0 lead