The Red Rose scrum guru coached alongside Warren Gatland, Shaun Edwards and Rob Howley during the 2009 British and Irish Lions tour.
Wales go into the Triple Crown clash as the bookies’ favourites and Rowntree is full of admiration for Gatland’s on fire charges.
But he will pit his wits against his former colleagues as England aim to maintain their own 100 per cent start to the Six Nations campaign.
“It is hard to dislike this Welsh team – but I’ll do my best to try,” Rowntree said.
“I have worked with these guys on the Lions. I have been impressed by their skill. They are good guys as well.
“They are a complete outfit in terms of what they can produce in the tight and dynamically in the loose.
“They are the form team, coming to Twickenham as favourites for the first time in a long time. They have a great opportunity to come to Twickenham and roll us at the weekend.
“Something we spoke about all week is matching that challenge. I think we are going to be able to step up.”
While England are also unbeaten, they have failed to fire on all cylinders so far in the Championship with just two tries in comparison to Wales’ six.
But Rowntree is confident they can show more of an attacking threat on their return in Twickenham
“We are going to be up for the challenge,” he added
.
“We have only scored two tries from charge-downs but our endeavour is good.
“We have had difficult circumstances which we have all spoken about the last couple of weeks.
“Scotland threw everything at us and over in Italy, in difficult conditions, in the second half we showed with a bit of ball how we can attack.
“This is the next game and I think we are going to be able to step up.”Â
