Rhys Priestland: 'We'll have to be at our best to beat England'

Wales fly-half Rhys Priestland has revealed that last month's heavy defeat to Ireland is the driving force behind his side's defence of the Six Nations title.

Ireland came out 26-3 winners at the Aviva Stadium in the second round of fixtures, though Wales bounced back with victory against France last time out.

This weekend, Warren Gatland's charges travel to Twickenham to face England in what is a vital match for both teams.

"Everyone's on edge. It's pretty similar to that France game," Priestland told the Welsh Rugby Union's official website. "We saw when we're not at our best what can happen - any team who doesn't turn up on the day is going to get punished in this competition.

"We'll have to be at our best to make sure there's not a repeat of what happened in Dublin because England are playing very well at the moment and Twickenham's a very tough place to go. They played well against Ireland, whereas we came up well short against them.

"Ireland was a big wake up call and we know that, if we're not at our best, it could happen again when we go to Twickenham. We sorted our own house out against France and hopefully we can do the same against England."

Wales are currently third in the Six Nations standings, level on points with leaders France after three games.