Wales boss Warren Gatland has claimed that he is in possession of several of England's lineout calls © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Warren Gatland

Tournaments/Tours: Six Nations

Teams: England | Wales

Wales boss Warren Gatland has attempted to ruffle England's feathers ahead of tomorrow's vital Six Nations showdown in Cardiff by claiming that the Wales squad knew the English lineout calls thanks to referee link radios.

"We have picked up a number of their calls from some audio stuff," Gatland told The Western Mail. "From the ref links we have been able to identify a number of their calls and patterns."

Gatland's claims may unsettle an England camp already struggling with low confidence after damning press criticism of their performance against Italy last weekend. England manager Martin Johnson will have no time to change the calls now, and will hope that Gatland's claims are a ruse. With England certain to target Wales at the lineout, their Achilles heel in recent Tests, Gatland may be attempting to deflect attention.

The Wales boss has also revealed that he his squad has been studying old clips of Johnson's former club Leicester in an attempt to get a better picture of their opponents.

"It's quite hard to read England at the moment and we have looked at some of the games Leicester have played against Wasps," he said. "Leicester probably had a bit more firepower in some positions. They had people like Varndell, Rabeni and Tuilagi and so you never know whether they will go with that approach.

"And whether they bring a bit more of (attack coach) Brian Smith's influence into it I am not sure. They may do what they did against the All Blacks - a set-piece, physical game.

"I think it is interesting they have picked Joe Worsley, who is a great tackler. That's probably to counter the threat of Jamie Roberts and Andy Powell. And they have also tried to take some things from the All Blacks in terms of their four-man lineouts and other structures. They have some patterns similar to Bath as well."

Wales lock Ian Gough has also expressed his belief that England will target the Welsh lineout, with London Irish's arch-poacher Nick Kennedy taking a central role.

"I am sure they will target our lineout," Gough told The South Wales Echo. "England are traditionally a very good set-piece team and they probably have a bit more finesse about them now in the lineout with Steve Borthwick and Nick Kennedy. So they are bound to come at us.

"It will be a gladiatorial arena out there. I am sure they will try and knock us back and blue, and I am in no doubt they will try to bully us up front. But we want to prove our pack can do a job. As an eight we were happy with how it went in Murrayfield, but we are not patting ourselves on the back just yet.

"We have analysed what was good and what could be better and we realise England are going to be a tougher challenge up front than Scotland were."