• Captain says highly charged Cardiff is no concern to his side • ‘Everything else is just white noise,’ says Courtney Lawes

England’s players have insisted they will be ready for any underhand attempts to unsettle them before Saturday’s Six Nations grand slam eliminator against Wales.

Two years ago in Cardiff England’s bus went the wrong way on approach to the Principality Stadium, delaying their warm-up, and in 2015 Chris Robshaw memorably stood his ground in the tunnel as stadium officials attempted to send his side out on to the pitch early and leave them waiting around.

Eddie Jones, meanwhile, has previously warned that “once we go down the M4 and across the Severn we don’t control anything” but England’s captain, Owen Farrell, is adamant any dirty tricks designed to knock his side out of their stride will be a waste of time. “If anything does get thrown at us, I’d expect or hope we would be calm enough to deal with it,” said Farrell.

Wales v England: remembering six of their best meetings down the years Read more

Courtney Lawes, another who has been on the winning and losing side at the Principality Stadium, was similarly dismissive on anything that may lie in wait. “It makes no difference to us. We know our focus. We’ve spoken at length what this means to us and the fact that we can only control ourselves. Anything outside of that is white noise and is nothing. We need the right mindset for the game and, if we get that right, we give ourselves the best possible shot.”

As part of the verbal exchange between Jones and Warren Gatland on Thursday the Wales head coach singled out England’s Kyle Sinckler, describing the tighthead prop as an “emotional timebomb” after he was involved in flashpoints against Ireland and France. The England attack coach, Scott Wisemantel, claimed their opponents would be foolish to target Sinckler and warned the Wales half-backs Gareth Davies and Gareth Anscombe they are in for a rough ride.

“It’s probably Warren trying to stir the pot a bit,” he said. “That’s the way [Kyle] plays the game. Do you really want to take that away from someone? I don’t think so. He knows how to control himself and I don’t think it’s an issue at all. If they target him, then they’re leaving 14 other blokes to do their jobs so good luck.”

Asked about Wales’s decision to pick Anscombe over Dan Biggar at fly-half, Wisemantel added: “He’ll get a few tackles. Just like the other guys will get tackles. Davies will get tackles. They’ll all get a shot.”

England head to Cardiff with an impressive recent record against Wales, having won six of their last seven matches since the 30-3 hammering in 2013 – even if their one defeat was the catastrophic 2015 World Cup loss. With both sides having won both their matches so far in the Six Nations, Saturday’s match is seen by many as a decider for the tournament with England currently top of the table with 10 points from two matches, having scored 10 tries.

Jonny May has contributed four of them, including a 29-minute hat-trick against France last time out, and Wisemantel explained how England have gone about preparing him to face Wales. “We periodise Jonny’s week as ‘the Ferrari’,” he said. “So the Ferrari gets put in the garage, we put the covers on the Ferrari and give it a good grease and oil change and that is how we periodise Jonny’s week and it gives him a really good visual for his week. He is extremely detailed with his preparation.”

Wales, meanwhile, are seeking a record 12th consecutive win but have shown only glimpses of their best in away victories over France and Italy so far.

“As a squad, we are very real about our performances of late,” said the Wales captain, Alun Wyn Jones. “To get the win is the most important thing, and people sometimes forget how you win. It’s all about the win, particularly at this level. It’s momentum.”