Despite a sorry record at Twickenham with only one win since 1988 when the Berlin Wall was still standing, Wales's ambitions extend beyond clinching the Triple Crown in their Six Nations championship clash against England this Saturday.

Wales, a small nation on the border of a dominant neighbour, have forged an important part of their national identity on the rugby pitch and beating England has always been a source of particular satisfaction.

This year though, according to their tousle-haired tighthead prop Adam Jones, the new generation of Welsh players who made such an impression at last year's World Cup are looking beyond Saturday's match.

"It used to be the case in Wales that the championship was all about beating England and the rest didn't matter," Jones told the Welsh Rugby Union website (www.wru.co.uk).

"We don't look at beating England in that way anymore. We've shown glimpses in the first games of what we can do but we haven't put it together for a whole 80 minutes yet.

"There is still plenty more to come."

Much of the pre-match publicity before this year's third round of the European championship has focused on the imposing Welsh three-quarter line of Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies, Alex Cuthbert and George North.

The Welsh quartet are as tall, heavy and strong as the Welsh forwards during the amateur days of the 1980s. They are also fast and skilled and Clive Rowlands, the coach at the start of Wales's last golden era in the 1970s, believes the Welsh team overall will take a physical advantage into Saturday's match.

"They (England) used to be bigger than us and guaranteed to win more than 50 per cent of the ball," he told WalesOnline.co.uk.

"This English pack is not as big as it used to be and we're probably bigger than them up front. We definitely are in the backs."

Rowlands voiced the growing excitement in Wales about a side who combine the physicality and fitness of the modern rugby player with the attacking instincts and ball skills of the great Welsh sides at the turn of the 20th century and then during the 1930s, 1950s and 1970s.

"There's something in the air again," he said after witnessing Wales beat Scotland in the last round. "I had a feeling it was the 70s all over again. Everybody seems to be so happy with each other.

"The great thing about the 70s was no matter which club a player was with, he fitted in when he joined the Welsh squad."

Wales, who have captain Sam Warburton back in the side of the scrum and British and Irish Lions' lock Alun Wyn Jones restored to the second row, made a later change to their squad on Thursday when veteran flyhalf Stephen Jones replaced James Hook on the bench.

A statement on the Welsh Rugby Union website said Hook, who had undergone a bout of chickenpox, had been examined at the Welsh team headquarters in London after flying from his French club Perpignan.