Defence key to victory at Twickenham – Phillips (From Western Telegraph)

Defence key to victory at Twickenham – Phillips

9:20am Tuesday 14th February 2012 in Wales Rugby By Iwan Davies

TENACIOUS scrum half Mike Phillips is wary of “dangerous” England and believes defence will have to be at its best if Wales are to win the Triple Crown at Twickenham in a fortnight.

Wales and England have both been victorious in their opening two games and they have realistic aspirations of winning silverware this season.

Although the new look England haven’t exactly set the world on fire so far in the Six Nations with their attacking play, Phillips believes they can still pose a serious threat in that area.

With players of the calibre of Ben Foden and Chris Ashton, as well as growing confidence with two away wins over Scotland and Italy under their belts, it would be foolish to underestimate them.

“They are still two wins from two, they’ve got a new side and they are coming together, and are very dangerous,” the 29-year-old Bayonne player said.

“It’s very important we go up there with a solid defence, because they’ve got some threatening players in their side, they are a dangerous team to play.”

Phillips, who won his 62nd cap in Sunday’s 27-13 victory over Scotland, feels England were fortunate to beat Italy 19-15 in Rome over the weekend but added that they have that all important winning habit. “Italy threw it away really, didn’t they?” he said.

“They were up by eight or nine points and in control and threw the game so they will be frustrated, but fair play to England, they’ve got two wins, and a win is a win isn’t it?”

Phillips was impressed with the way Wales beat Scotland to add to their opening Six Nations win over Ireland in Dublin.

“This is a really young team, looking around there were a couple of boys winning their first caps (Aaron Shingler and Lou Reed), and if you think about it, it is the first time some of these boys have been there on the big stage and I thought we showed some good qualities out there,” he said.

“Our defence was sound, a couple of things that could have gone a bit better, but if you look at it on the whole, then it was a great win.”