Warren Gatland always likes to keep a step ahead and the Wales coach has put himself out there in front of everyone else again this week by naming his team for this Saturday’s match against England 24 hours earlier than scheduled.

Gatland has made seven changes to the side that went down 27-26 to Scotland in the opening round of the championship, some of them because players have recovered from old injuries, some because others have succumbed to new ones, and the rest simply because their first-half performance was so poor.

Gatland has recalled George North at outside centre, where he starts instead of Owen Watkin. North, who missed the opening match with a shoulder injury, will be playing in his 119th Test, which means he has won almost a quarter of the starting XV’s total of 479 caps all by himself.

Gatland has also picked both Ioan Lloyd and Tomos Williams, the two half-backs who orchestrated Wales’ second-half fightback from 27-0 down against Scotland. Sam Costelow, who started that match at fly-half, is out injured, but his partner, Gareth Davies, has simply been dropped from the squad. Kieran Hardy and Cai Evans will cover from the bench. Tommy Reffell is back on the flank, alongside Alex Mann, while Gatland has also rejigged his entire front row by bringing in Gareth Thomas, Elliot Dee, and Keiron Assiratti. Corey Domachowski and Ryan Elias have dropped to the bench, where they are joined by Will Rowlands and Taine Basham.

“We’ve been critical and tough on ourselves this week,” Gatland said. “That first half was nowhere near the standards we expect. We simply cannot start the same way this Saturday. We showed in the second half against Scotland what we are capable of. Now it’s about building on that performance and playing with some tempo from the off.

“We need to be accurate and keep our discipline. This is a massive game, not only because of the history and what it means to everyone in Wales. But it’s an opportunity to get things on track a bit more.”

Gatland also said he felt England were “in a rebuilding phase”. Them and Wales both. Lloyd has only played three Tests, while three more of Gatland’s team, Evans, Mann, and the full-back Cameron Winnett, have only played one. Another, the replacement prop Archie Griffin, who has barely played 100 minutes of rugby for Bath’s first team this season, will be making his debut if he gets on. North, Williams, Adam Beard and Josh Adams, who keeps his place after being publicly criticised by Gatland last week, are the only four among the squad with more than 50 caps.

Wales have not beaten England at Twickenham since the 2015 World Cup, although there has only been a single score between them in each of the last three Tests. Still, Gatland says: “We’ll go there with a lot of confidence we can build on that second half, and belief.”