WARREN Gatland hopes his charges have learnt their lesson from the Six Nations as Wales prepare for a crucial clash with World Cup hosts England.

The visitors triumphed when the sides met at the Millennium Stadium in February, scoring 13 unanswered second half points to triumph 21-16.

England enjoy home advantage on Saturday (kick-off 8pm) as they attempt to land a telling blow in the group of death after their bonus point win against Fiji on opening night.

Meanwhile Wales have headed over the Severn Bridge to their Surrey base after a mix-and-match side started the tournament with a 54-9 success against minnows Uruguay in Cardiff.

They have a welcome ceremony in London this afternoon, a day off tomorrow and then start training on Wednesday with Gatland drilling into his players the need to avoid an arm-wrestle.

He said: “We saw the way England played against us in the Six Nations and we saw what they did on Friday night when the second half tightened up.

“They just went back to their forward play, drove every single line-out. It’s going to be a contest up front. It’s going to be a mental, physical battle and we’ve just got to prepare for that.

“England will want to control the tempo of the game and bring some physicality to it, keep the ball in the scrum and try and have second shoves.

“We have got to make sure we don’t get dragged into a game we don’t want to play. We have to be combative up front to try and negate what are some of England’s strengths.

“France in the (warm-up) game in Paris for 70 minutes had a pretty good template of the way to play. It’s going to be a really tough physical game.”

Wales are expected to issue a medical bulletin today with centre Cory Allen, who scored a hat-trick again Uruguay, likely to be replaced in the squad after suffering a hamstring injury.