Centre Hadleigh Parkes insists he and his team-mates are singing from the same hymn sheet as Wales look to bounce back from successive Guinness Six Nations defeats.
Wales kicked off a new era under Wayne Pivac in style with a five-try 42-0 victory over Italy at the Principality Stadium on the opening day of this year’s Championship.
But Pivac’s side were then beaten 24-14 by Ireland at the Aviva Stadium before suffering the disappointment of losing 27-23 to France in front of their home fans.
Although frustrated to lose in Cardiff, Parkes believes Wales’ gameplan is starting to come together as they look ahead to their final two matches.
Last year’s Grand Slam winners face England at Twickenham on Saturday, March 7 before playing host to Scotland seven days later.
“Everybody’s buying in to what we’re trying to do at the moment,†Parkes told the WRU.
“I think it’s going to build well and we’ve still got two big games to go.
“It’s starting to come together.
“The France game was probably the second game in a row we’ve let go unfortunately but that’s the way it is.
“The bounce of the ball, a little bit of momentum here and there, there’s a few what-ifs, but that’s sport.â€
No panicking in the Welsh ranks after their defeat to France… #GuinnessSixNations pic.twitter.com/IdsY9YAMmB
— Guinness Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) February 24, 2020
Wales will hope to get their campaign back on track when they face England, who defeated Ireland 24-12 at Twickenham in Round 3.
“We don’t like losing at home, so we want to do well at Twickenham first and then we want to do extremely well when we get back home,†Parkes said.
“We want to go out there and win. We want to do as well as possible for the fans that are coming and those at home.
“It would have been nice to go to Twickenham off the back of a win but that won’t be the case now.
“It’s always a big game and it’s one we want to do extremely well in.â€
Reflecting on the defeat to France, Parkes added: “[France] showed great character, they did extremely well. They’re an exciting team.
“I guess you can look at the last three times we’ve played them, they’ve had chances to win, in Paris and at the World Cup we gave them a head start.
“They’re a good side that starts well.
“They were attacking those wide breakdowns pretty hard and fiercely.
“We know [Shaun Edwards] pretty well and he knows us pretty well, and you can see that he’s having a bit of an influence there at the moment.â€
Elsewhere, Wales have decided to keep full-back Liam Williams in camp as they continue their preparations for their clash with England.
Williams has not played since October 2019 due to an ankle injury.
Wales have released Cardiff Blues duo Hallam Amos and Seb Davies, Scarlets flanker Aaron Shingler and Dragons back-rower Taine Basham back to their regions.
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Source: 6 Nations