France passed a big test in their bid to be crowned champions for the first time in a decade when they beat Wales last time out, providing Eddie Jones' England a blueprint on how to stall Wayne Pivac's sides attack.
England are four points behind France after a defeat of Ireland at Twickenham and will have home advantage again when they take on the defending champions.
Once again Omar Mouneimne has run over the two sides in his preview of the crunch clash at HQ this weekend.
The Worcester Warriors' defence coach has drawn a few parallels between France and England - in terms of kicking game and defence.
"I think they play a similar suffocating strangle game where their kicking game is really relentless and ruthless."
"They both kick accurately, they race chase, they put under pressure on first contact and their defensive systems have massive line speed with really, really aggressive tackle technique and slowing the ball down techniques at the defensive breakdown."
"So England, for example, you know, their defence is always excellent. They've only conceded five tries. Wales have conceded seven. And the tackle completions are pretty similar. But what really stands out is England's dominant tackles. 71% of their tackles are dominant while sit on 46%."
England are the masters of territory
"From a territory and possession perspective, England are the masters of territory and currently have a territory base of 54.4% and Wales is 48.9%. And that will be telling.
If you look at the possession stakes, England on 49% and Wales on 51%. Now Wales had the quickest attacking breakdown in the tournament at three point eight seconds. It is now at 4.8 seconds. And England's 4.9. So pretty much even there, I would say the key difference in this match is simple. If Wales can't match the physicality that England bring on the game line and handle England's massive line speed and big double and triple tackle shots in contact, it will be a long day for them, it will be a tough game."
They will also have to deal with England's kicking game, something they weren't able to get right against France as you will see in the full analysis below.
"So Wales would have focused on the kicking this week, I assume, and on their contact skills. In terms of Wales attack, yes they have good shape, but they're going to have to train to move the point of contact and obviously dominating contact with the ball to get that ruck speed to move England around.
But otherwise, I think I'll go with England to edge them in this contest based on a very, very good kicking game and excellent defence. Can Wales have learned from the game against France? Only time will tell. But some good lessons that they could've picked up."
