LONDON (AFP) - England captain Steve Borthwick has told his side they must reduce their yellow card count, which has seen six players sin-binned in two matches, if they are to beat Wales on Saturday.

Each time a player is yellow-carded he spends 10 minutes off the field and Borthwick knows the visitors can ill-afford such absences against defending grand slam champions Wales in Cardiff.

So bad has England's discipline been in their November loss to New Zealand and last weekend's opening Six Nations 36-11 win over Italy at Twickenham, that this week they've been training with 14 men in case they find themselves down a man at the Millennium Stadium.

Most infringements are, in some sense 'needless' but the yellow cards flanker James Haskell (tripping) and replacement back Shane Geraghty (taking a man out in the air) collected against Italy were, as Borthwick acknowledged, "clearly avoidable".

Borthwick, speaking at England's hotel here on Wednesday, said: "The last two games against Italy and New Zealand we have had sin-bins and we know they are not acceptable.

"We need to make sure we keep 15 players on the field for the whole game," the lock added.

"Playing 20 minutes with a man down makes international rugby much harder. We need to reduce our penalty counts. We need greater levels of discipline and to make better decisions in that area.

"Both of those situations at the weekend were clearly avoidable.

"We have discussed what we need to do as a team and talked about what we deem to be acceptable behaviour and what isn't. We have crossed the line a little bit too often.

"This will be an incredible Test match. It will be immensely hard fought. We need to go out and play to our maximum and we need to ensure we don't give the opposition as many opportunities as they have had.

"If we don't give them opportunities the pressure remains heaped on them."

Wales played with far more alacrity and creativity in their 26-13 win over Scotland than England managed against Italy, where Borthwick's men struggled to get quick ball.

Even so, the Saracens second-row said the fact England won would inspire the team this weekend.

"The mood in the group last week was very determined to start the Six Nations as well as we possibly can," Borthwick said.

"We had lost our last three games at Twickenham, which was unacceptable, and we had to put that right.

"Moving on from that there is a great deal of confidence from a lot of the stuff we did very well. We won a Test by five tries to one and we look at the video and see lots of other chances we were creating.

"That gives us confidence that we are creating opportunities. It is up to us to take them.

"We haven't beaten Italy by that many points in a while, England haven't won a Six Nations game by five tries to one in a while. To do that and still know how much better we can play gives us real confidence."