Warren Gatland values Wales clash against England
Wales coach Warren Gatland stated that his team will not take the clash against England at Twickenham on Sunday lightly.
The last two times the two teams met each other was in the 2015 World Cup and Six Nations at the same venue with both Wales and England winning a game apiece.
After Sunday's game, Wales will be heading to New Zealand for a three-Test tour while England will travel to Australia for the summer tour in June.
However, the 52-year-old played down any concerns of Wales taking the game against England as a preparation for the tour of New Zealand.
"We want to go to Twickenham and play well, but it's looking longer-term and New Zealand, and throwing some things in because New Zealand do defend differently and play differently to England," Gatland said.
"You have got to be conscious of that, but there is no way we want to under-value how important it is when Wales play England because of the tradition.
"Over the years, there is very little between us with the win-loss ratio. They are a couple of wins ahead of us.
"It would be nice to close that ledger down in front of what should be close to a full house with a great atmosphere."
Wales have made five changes to their side from the previous encounter against England in Six Nations with starts for centre Scott Williams, wing Hallam Amos, scrum-half Rhys Webb, lock Jake Ball and flanker Ross Moriarty.
Ospreys flanker Dan Lydiate will be leading the Wales team in the absence of regular skipper Sam Warburton and Gatland urged the team to build momentum ahead of the series against All Blacks.
"Southern hemisphere teams are coming out of competitions where they are pretty battle-hardened and ready for that first Test, and we have demonstrated in the past that we have got better the longer we have spent together.
"It is why we wanted this game (against England), and a little bit more time together before we played the first Test.
"We have got to put something right on Sunday, not in terms of a performance, but in terms of an attitude.”
Gatland also stressed on the need to start a game well and believes if Wales can play up to their potential, they can upstage the All Blacks.
"Mentally, we have got to be right. We have discussed that as management and players and thought we didn't get off the bus in that first 40 minutes against England in the Six Nations.
"We talked about it at half-time and put things right in the second half. That sometimes happens in sport. We have acknowledged and accepted that. That's the first step,
"The second step is going to New Zealand with some confidence that we are good enough on our day to beat the best team in the world.
"That is going to be a massive challenge because, looking at some of their teams in Super Rugby, they have been red-hot.
"People talk about New Zealand being weakened. They are going to be weakened from an experience point of view (they will be without the likes of Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith), but not from a personnel and skill point of view.
"We saw in the World Cup, the amount of experience they had in the team, there was never any panic.
"You have to be in the game, and hopefully the experience of our players who have been around for a long time and had success with the Lions in Australia, will allow them to do a job for us. We have to go out and play well."
