Williams retained his optimism despite watching Wales rack up a record 46-22 victory over Scotland on Sunday, finding positives in a second-half performance which was much improved but 40 minutes too late.

By the time Scotland scored their first try, Wales had run already run in six, led 43-3 and had been reduced to 14 men by Brent Cockbain's sin-binning.

Williams insisted the Calcutta Cup clash at Twickenham will provide his shattered men with the ideal opportunity to prove their mettle.

The game against England will provide a great opportunity for us to go to a pretty ferocious environment down there, he said.

I think England have been the better team in three of their losses. I thought they should have beaten Ireland, they were the better team against France and the Welsh game was pretty tight.

This will provide us with the opportunity to go down there, get out and play to win a Calcutta Cup.

We have to focus on it as a one-off game. If we play like we did in the second half we will have a chance.

The positive intent does not hide the gaping wounds in the Scotland side caused by Wales' slashing attack and defeat at Twickenham would leave Williams with just one win from two RBS 6 Nations campaigns in charge.

Chris Paterson, who scored Scotland's third try, said: We have six days to try to turn things around. We have to eradicate the negative feelings from this heavy defeat and look to replicate our second-half performance from today for a full 80 minutes against England.