{"id":9589,"date":"2016-03-01T22:08:10","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T22:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/?p=9589"},"modified":"2016-03-01T22:08:10","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T22:08:10","slug":"welsh-hooker-owens-looks-forward-to-twickenham-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/01\/welsh-hooker-owens-looks-forward-to-twickenham-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Welsh hooker Owens looks forward to Twickenham battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WELSH hooker Ken Owens has played down suggestions that Warren Gatland\u2019s side will look to target England skipper Dylan Hartley.<br \/>\nNorthampton Saints hooker Hartley was a controversial selection as England captain, given his poor disciplinary record, which has seen him banned in total for 54 weeks of his career.<br \/>\nPrior to a Six Nations fixture five years ago, Welsh coach Warren Gatland openly criticised the England man\u2019s temperament.<br \/>\nHowever, there was no such provocation this time, with Scarlets hooker Owens complimentary of his opposite number.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9605\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9605\" style=\"width: 332px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ken-Owens-pic.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9605\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-9605\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ken-Owens-pic-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Welsh hooker Ken Owens \" width=\"332\" height=\"249\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9605\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-9605\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ken-Owens-pic-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Welsh hooker Ken Owens \" width=\"332\" height=\"249\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> Welsh hooker Ken Owens<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n\u201cI don\u2019t think you ever go on the pitch to try and wind an individual up, you just try and concentrate on your own game,\u201d said the 29 year-old.<br \/>\n\u201cI\u2019ve played against him once this season. He\u2019s a slightly different character, but that\u2019s how he plays the game.<br \/>\n\u201cHe\u2019s right on the edge, and that\u2019s what makes him the player that he is in terms of a ball carrying threat and a big tackler.<br \/>\n\u201cYou can\u2019t really take that out of his game because that\u2019s what makes him slightly different to other players.\u201d<br \/>\nDespite being a key member of Warren Gatland\u2019s squad since 2011, Scarlets captain Owens has struggled to hold down a starting place having being seen primarily as an impact player.<br \/>\nHowever, Owens has not given up hope of forcing his way into the starting fifteen.<br \/>\n\u201cYou\u2019re always hopeful, you work hard in training, to try and put performances out on the pitch,\u201d he said.<br \/>\n\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019ve been so successful as a squad &#8211; there\u2019s so much strength in depth and competition for places.<br \/>\n\u201cScott Baldwin has been playing well, and I\u2019m just trying to do as good a job as I can coming off the bench, and hopefully I get an opportunity to start.\u201d<br \/>\nWhile last Friday\u2019s victory extended Wales\u2019 unbeaten record over the French to five, however even that has not halted the criticism of their attacking game.<br \/>\nOwens was adamant there was still a lot of improvement to come from a Welsh side chasing its fourth Six Nations title of the Gatland era.<br \/>\nHe said: \u201cWe are always working and all the other boys say work hard before training and work on the individual skills after. It\u2019s just about executing them under pressure.<br \/>\n\u201cGoing back to the World Cup and the early parts of the Six Nations, we\u2019ve created chances and just haven\u2019t finished them off.<br \/>\n\u201cTake one or two of them and they are completely different games.\u201d<br \/>\nBefore contemplating such milestones Wales must first overcome an England side that remain in contention for a first Grand Slam since 2003.<br \/>\n\u201cThey are not top of the Six Nations for nothing, they\u2019ve had three good wins and two away from home and they are improving game on game,\u201d said Owens.<br \/>\n\u201cYou can see how they\u2019re slowly evolving, and improving under Eddie Jones. It\u2019s going to be a real tough and physical match at Twickenham and we are looking forward to that.<br \/>\n\u201cWe are going to their home patch so they will probably be favourites, but we are taking it game by game and concentrating on ourselves.\u201d<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WELSH hooker Ken Owens has played down suggestions that Warren Gatland\u2019s side will look to target England skipper Dylan Hartley. Northampton Saints hooker Hartley was a controversial selection as England captain, given his poor disciplinary record, which has seen him banned in total for 54 weeks of his career. Prior to a Six Nations fixture five years ago, Welsh coach Warren Gatland openly criticised the England man\u2019s temperament. However, there was no such provocation this time, with Scarlets hooker Owens [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,4],"tags":[154,328,74,339,293],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-9589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rugby","category-sport","tag-rugby-2","tag-six-nations","tag-sport-2","tag-wales","tag-welsh"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Welsh hooker Owens looks forward to Twickenham battle - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/01\/welsh-hooker-owens-looks-forward-to-twickenham-battle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Welsh hooker Owens looks forward to Twickenham battle - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WELSH hooker Ken Owens has played down suggestions that Warren Gatland\u2019s side will look to target England skipper Dylan Hartley. Northampton Saints hooker Hartley was a controversial selection as England captain, given his poor disciplinary record, which has seen him banned in total for 54 weeks of his career. Prior to a Six Nations fixture five years ago, Welsh coach Warren Gatland openly criticised the England man\u2019s temperament. However, there was no such provocation this time, with Scarlets hooker Owens [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/01\/welsh-hooker-owens-looks-forward-to-twickenham-battle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-01T22:08:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ken-Owens-pic-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cathyduncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cathyduncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cathyduncan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/01\/welsh-hooker-owens-looks-forward-to-twickenham-battle\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/01\/welsh-hooker-owens-looks-forward-to-twickenham-battle\/\",\"name\":\"Welsh hooker Owens looks forward to Twickenham battle - The Cardiffian\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/01\/welsh-hooker-owens-looks-forward-to-twickenham-battle\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/01\/welsh-hooker-owens-looks-forward-to-twickenham-battle\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ken-Owens-pic-300x225.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-01T22:08:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/41c76b1e66d8cf6e57cba8550c3772b1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/01\/welsh-hooker-owens-looks-forward-to-twickenham-battle\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/01\/welsh-hooker-owens-looks-forward-to-twickenham-battle\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/01\/welsh-hooker-owens-looks-forward-to-twickenham-battle\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ken-Owens-pic-300x225.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ken-Owens-pic-300x225.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/01\/welsh-hooker-owens-looks-forward-to-twickenham-battle\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Welsh hooker Owens looks forward to Twickenham battle\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\",\"name\":\"The Cardiffian\",\"description\":\"Just another JOMEC Sites Network site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/41c76b1e66d8cf6e57cba8550c3772b1\",\"name\":\"cathyduncan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/d4d0895f6e1f7ccb86d04236a870a18b\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cd1b1b63598c25c15d3e0d390366ec2ba1c99865b1a23c34339be8c5c396a81?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cd1b1b63598c25c15d3e0d390366ec2ba1c99865b1a23c34339be8c5c396a81?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cathyduncan\"},\"description\":\"Lecturer, Cardiff University News Journalism MA. 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