Warren Gatland: Wales were too fit for England in Cardiff | Steve Borthwick: We're focusing on being fit for Rugby World Cup
Steve Borthwick: "We believe we're on the right track for where we want to be right now, I don't know what other teams are doing or saying about their players or our team, I just concentrate on my team. We are ensuring our training is tailored for where we need to be in four weeks' time"
Last Updated: 12/08/23 4:14pm
Warren Gatland claimed Wales were "too fit for England" after victory in Cardiff, but Steve Borthwick flat-batted the criticism ahead of their rematch, saying England are planning to be fit "for four weeks time."
Borthwick insists he is satisfied with England's conditioning despite Gatland's claims after Wales secured a 20-9 win at the Principality Stadium last Saturday, in both sides' first Rugby World Cup warm-up Test of the summer.
The sides meet again at Twickenham this Saturday, and the England boss rejected the criticism by stating his team are on track to be ready for the World Cup under the guidance of Aled Walters - a Welshman - who acted as South Africa's head of conditioning for their triumph in 2019.
The jibes are all the more intriguing considering England and Wales could well meet one another in a World Cup quarter-final come October.
"The programme is very specific and direct for what we need to do with the players we have," Borthwick said.
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"In Aled Walters, with his experience of getting a team right to win a World Cup, we've got a guy who's proven to get a team together at the right time.
"We believe we're on the right track for where we want to be right now, I don't know what other teams are doing or saying about their players or our team, I just concentrate on my team and we're in a pretty good place right now.
"We are ensuring our training is tailored for where we need to be in four weeks' time. I know this team is going to get sharper over the subsequent weeks.
"As the training volume changes, the sharpness in their legs will change and that will lead to an even better performance in the pitch."
As part of 11 changes to the England side, Henry Arundell makes only his second start in eight Tests when Gatland's men visit Twickenham on Saturday, lining up on the right wing of a team that is close to Borthwick's strongest.
The 20-year-old is the most exciting talent in English rugby and has electric running skills, but Borthwick insists he must not overthink his game.
"Henry is in great physical shape and he's got such incredible natural talents that you want to ensure are always going to be there. We want him to trust his instincts," Borthwick said.
"We want to give him the ball and I'm sure the opposition will know that and try to shut down the space, which may open up opportunities elsewhere.
"We're aware of that but everyone is looking forward to seeing him. He's a young man with a big future in front of him.
"When you look around world rugby right now you see teams who have players that can break the game up in different ways.
"One of those ways is pace and Henry has pace. If we can get him the ball in space, and he in particular doesn't need a huge amount of space, then he can make things happen.
"We've already seen him do that in an England shirt and we're looking forward to seeing him do it more."
Townsend: Scotland can't wait to face full-strength France | 'White is progressing positively'
France have restored most of their big hitters for this weekend's Test vs Scotland after fielding a largely second-string side at Murrayfield in a 25-21 defeat from a position of 21-3 ahead last week.
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend expects a formidable Test in the Saturday night heat, with the temperature forecast to hit 32 degrees during the day in Saint-Etienne, but says he and his squad "can't wait".
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"France are one of the best teams in the world. Up until last week they had only lost one Test match throughout the whole of 2022 and 2023," Townsend said.
"They have real strength in depth. They have a first team that has played a lot of rugby together over these last few years and equally importantly, they are playing at home.
"The French crowds have been very noisy this year, whether it's a game at Stade de France, an U20s game, a women's international or top club games, so we're sure we'll be going into a very noisy, hostile environment at Saint-Etienne and we can't wait.
"It'll be a big challenge. Playing away from home in a noisy atmosphere is a challenge. The weather is also really hot over here at the moment. It's a challenge to play against the best France have to offer. We've had some really good battles with them over the past few years in the Six Nations.
"We know they'll come out firing. They don't have many games left now until they start their own World Cup against New Zealand [on September 8]. They'll want to give their best performance this weekend, just like we do."
Townsend added he is confident Ben White will be fit for the Rugby World Cup even though the Scotland scrum-half has not travelled to France due to an ankle injury picked up last week.
The 25-year-old, who started each of the Six Nations matches earlier this year, was forced off in clear discomfort with an ankle injury in the first half of last weekend's victory over Les Bleus.
White stayed in Scotland while the rest of the squad flew out on Sunday to their World Cup training base near Nice. His No 9 jersey has been taken by Ali Price for Saturday's Test at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.
"Ben is doing alright," said Townsend as he faced the media on Thursday following his team announcement. "He is not part of our group just now, he has stayed at home to continue with rehab.
"Given the fact we've got two flights, one out here to our training camp, then one up to Saint-Etienne, and obviously some full-on training sessions, we decided it would be better for Ben to stay back home, get physio and rest up.
"We're confident Ben will return to training next week or the following week. We do have an appointment booked for him on Monday with a specialist to see how it's progressing.
"That gives us clarity ahead of announcing our World Cup squad [on Wednesday] but from chatting to the medics last night, he seems to be progressing positively, like we thought he would."