WHEN Leigh Halfpenny feels the heat of having to step up for a shot at goal at Twickenham in front of more than 80,000 fans tomorrow, he has a simple remedy for calming his frayed nerves.

The 23-year-old will imagine himself back in the Swansea suburb of Gorseinon where he grew up and honed his kicking craft at his village rugby club with a Jonny Wilkinson-like dedication.

As a youngster Halfpenny would spend hours practicing at the ground, often in the company of his devoted grandfather Malcolm.

It proved there’s more than a ring of truth about Gary Player’s famous maxim about practice, for earlier this month, the full back joined a list of immortal Wales heroes who’ve won crucial and thrilling contests with a last gasp kick at goal.

Halfpenny’s beautifully struck penalty in Dublin with seconds left gave Wales a sensational 23-21 victory over Ireland.

It saw him join a pantheon of greats who earned their legendary status in other, similar do-or-die, death or glory moments of truth where reputations are won or lost.

There are Wales fans who will never forget Paul Thornburn’s touchline conversion of Adrian Hadley’s try to seal third-place at the 1987 World Cup with a 22-21 triumph over Australia.

In 1999, Neil Jenkins, now Halfpenny’s kicking coach with Wales, showed nerves of steel to convert Scott Gibbs’ mesmerising try to deprive England of the Grand Slam in a 32-31 cliffhanger against all odds.

Most recently Gavin Henson’s towering penalty over England in 2005 with the clock ticking paved the way for a 11-9 win and a first Grand Slam in 27 years.

Halfpenny’s successful kick also helped ease the pain of his narrow miss in the autumn’s World Cup semi-final in New Zealand.

The Cardiff Blues man’s long range penalty fell agonisingly short of the bar for Wales fans and gave France and undeserved 9-8 victory against 14 men.

Outside-half Rhys Priestland started the Six Nations as Wales’ No 1 kicker but a less that happy day saw him bomb a number of attempts at the Aviva Stadium, including one right in front of the posts.

Halfpenny’s late penalty against Ireland and a 22-point haul in the success over Scotland – including two tries, three conversions and two penalties – mean the rest is history.

Talking about his winning kick against Ireland, he said visualising being back at Gorseinon helped him keep a cool head.

“Before the kick my heart was racing,” he revealed. “I had to take a couple of deep breaths.

“But after that, it’s all about treating every game as the same and as if I was on the practice field and I try and compose myself and not think about anything else other than the kick.

“For me, as I always do, I put myself back at Gorseinon. And it seems to work for me and it’s the same for every kick.

“It helps me keep calm and just go through the process I do every time and try and block out the crowd as much as I can.

“Against Ireland I didn’t realise they were booing for the last kick so that’s what I do for every kick.”

And Halfpenny believes Wales will have to keep England’s potent back three of Ben Foden, Chris Ashton and David Strettle quiet tomorrow if they are to win their first Triple Crown since 2008.

“They are extremely dangerous with the ball in hand and if they are given space and they work hard off the ball,” he said.

“Ashton seems to pop up everywhere for tries.”

“We’ve got to be aware of them and they are going to have to be tightly marked because they are quality players.”