Exclusive – Being favourites will count for nothing against England, warns Priestland

Rhys Priestland insists Wales are taking nothing for granted ahead of this weekend’s crunch Six Nations meeting with England.

Warren Gatland’s men are firm favourites going into Saturday’s clash at Twickenham, having followed on from their impressive World Cup campaign with victories over Ireland and Scotland in their opening two games of this year's Six Nations.

But Priestland has told talkSPORT being the bookmakers' choice will count for little as Wales bid for a first Triple Crown since 2008.

“A lot of people make too much of being favourites," he said, speaking to Drive Time. "We haven’t spoken about it as a squad. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to go up there and win but nobody gave us a chance going out to Ireland to win so the form book is always there to be upset.

“We know it’s going to be a brutal Test match, it always is against England, and Wales’ record at Twickenham is probably one of the worst ever so we are under no illusions. We know how tough it is going to be.

“England have quality players and they got quality players coming back into the line-up this week so it would be very foolish to go there and expect the win. We know nothing is going to come easy but as a squad we are confident in our ability and hopefully the hard work we have done over the past few months will pay off on Saturday.”

Wales will welcome back captain Sam Warburton this weekend after he missed the 27-13 victory over Scotland in Cardiff a fortnight ago with a thigh injury.

“Sam is a world class player and he is one of our best players,” said Priestland. “But the pleasing thing is we have had quite a few injuries in this Six Nations and the boys that have come in have really added something and really put pressure on the selectors.

“Any team would be lucky to have Sam Warburton back but it’s been a real strength of ours that even when we are missing players we have strength in depth now.”