It’s a new dawn – and we’re feeling good

Jan 27 2008 by James Hook, Wales On Sunday

A NEW year, new coach, a new dawn.

What happened out in France not so long ago has been put to bed and behind us as we look ahead to the next few months.

And I know I’m speaking for everyone in the Wales camp when I say I can’t wait for Saturday to arrive.

There might still have been a few miserable faces the last time we all met up just after we had been knocked out of the World Cup.

But the disappointment is all done with and, looking out on the training field this week, there have been a lot of smiles and a real sense of excitement.

We’ve a new coach to impress in Warren Gatland and you can definitely see it has brought a bit extra to the sessions we’ve had over the last week.

You can feel that added incentive among the boys. We’re all desperate to play against England and to do that we have to impress a coach who won’t have seen as much of us as our regional coaches.

Warren hasn’t taken long to get his teeth stuck into us. It has been a tough old week – but one we’ve all enjoyed.

Warren, new defence coach Shaun Edwards and Rob Howley are guys who command instant respect; and that has been important.

Rob was a great player for us and looks like a great coach, Warren has had huge success with Wasps and Ireland and Shaun was a player who gave nothing less than 100 per cent as a player – even if I’m a bit too young to have seen it for myself!

Warren seems very switched on and when we met he outlined just what he wants to achieve – and I think you’d struggle to find someone in the camp who didn’t want to deliver.

When he speaks, you listen.

The same goes for Shaun and we were all ears when he sat us all down to deliver a speech about our responsibility as a unit.

What he said was spot on – we’re all in this together and that’s what defence is all about.

Still, nobody has needed to tell any of us to get ourselves up for Saturday.

Yes, there have been a few differences, but some things never change – we all want to beat England.

The boys are buzzing and have been looking forward to this for weeks now.

Most of us arrived at our camp on a high anyway because of the Ospreys and the Blues making it through to the knock-out stages in Europe.

And when you think that we both turned over English opponents on the way to doing that, well, you couldn’t get a more positive way to enter a game like this.

A good job too, because nobody is stupid enough to think this won’t be tough; really tough.

I was about three years old the last time Wales won at Twickenham but the incentive of beating England in their own back yard is just huge.

Even taking away all the rivalry, we know how important winning in that first game can be to set you up for the whole tournament.

Just look back a few years to the Grand Slam – you win your opening fixture and who knows where that can take you?

Nobody needs to remind us. We know what is at stake and we know what a win can mean.

Still, if we’re to do it then we’re going to have to break this Twickenham losing streak.

It’s a very different place to the Millennium and people have got their own views on it, but I think it’s a fantastic stadium.

I was sat on the bench there for the World Cup warm up game last summer, so I was able to take in the atmosphere a little better than when you’re out there in the thick of it.

One thing I noticed was that when England started getting a bit of momentum you could feel the home fans really getting behind them and not letting up.

Some people might not agree with me but they are very similar to Wales fans in that sense; they can really drive a team on.

But let’s see what happens if we can force a few mistakes; if the crowd gets on their backs a little bit.

If you get on top early on and get a few points then we can turn things in our favour.

We all know what’s happened there before but it’s been a bit of out-with-the-old and in-with-the-new with Wales – why not do the same with our record down there?