Gatland banks on pent-up anger to send the English invaders packing

WARREN GATLAND wants Wales to draw a line in the sand, turn this week’s strike threat on its head and vent all that anger on England.

- Nick Purewal

After selecting a 6ft 5in, 17st rookie in midfield, the only marker that matters in Cardiff tomorrow is the gainline.

Mason Grady will become the first Wales centre to make his Test debut in a Six Nations match since 1992, with boss Gatland unusually hailing the unproven Cardiff powerhouse to high heaven. The raw 20-year-old will be on an advantage-line collision course with England’s battering ram, Ollie Lawrence.

At the end of a week of ultimate flux, suddenly something feels familiar. Wales’s threat of an unprecedented strike has been averted for now, just in time for all and sundry to flock to Cardiff.

Two days ago, captain Ken Owens called Wales the rugby world’s “laughing stock”. Yesterday, head coach Gatland was firing shots at England for wanting the stadium roof open.

From industrial action to Hymns and Arias, how the Six Nations needed Wales’s players and Union back on the same song sheet.