Wales worry about own faults over England threat

(Reuters) - Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones wants his team to focus on fixing their own deficiencies rather than being overly concerned about the threat of England when the two old rivals meet in the Autumn Nations Cup in Llanelli on Saturday.

Wales have won only one of their past seven tests, a far from convincing 18-0 triumph over Georgia with a second string at Parc y Scarlets last weekend, and go into the weekend’s match in the new style competition as underdogs.

“We know our deficiencies and what we need to improve,” Wyn Jones told a news conference on Friday.

“We also know their threats and what they’re going to bring but you cannot spend too much time focusing on the opposition.”

Wales have restored their side to full strength for the meeting with England, which is the second between the neighbours this year.

But since England’s narrow 33-30 victory at Twickenham in March, results for the two countries have gone in different directions.

England went on to win the Six Nations and have been victorious in the opening two games of the Autumn Nations Cup while Wales have tumbled to defeats to France, Ireland and Scotland since a return to playing after the COVID-19 lockdown of earlier in the year.

"They’ve carried on in a similar vein to how they left off,” Wyn Jones said of England.

"The strength in depth that they have in a lot of positions is clear to see, plus their consistency. They have players that go under the radar and underpin their star names.

"But we’re just going to go about our business. We have to focus on ourselves a lot more than on them,” he added.

(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Toby Chopra)