Key events
That’s all from us! I’ll leave you with Robert Kitson’s match report from the Principality Stadium.
England captain Maro Itoje says: “I think it was a fantastic effort from the team. The support here in Cardiff was amazing. We have been building towards this and we are showing a different side to us. You have to be consistent even when results do not go your way, no matter the outside noise and scrutiny. The challenge for our team is to grow and get better.”
Ben Curry has been named Player of the Match.
Thanks Lee! Here’s what England’s Ben Curry had to say about that performance: “I think we have definitely had to work at it. This team has been through a lot. It is an unbelievable feeling to give that, not just to ourselves and each other but the fans as well.
“This is what you dream of. I love being part of this team. I have not had too many opportunities over the last couple of years and I love being a part of this team.”
I’ll hand you over to Emillia Hawkins for all the reaction as I give my fingers a little rest before France vs Scotland.
FULL TIME!
PEEEEP! An absolute insurance job from England on Wales.
TRY! Wales 14 – 68 England (Chandler Cunningham-South)
81 mins. The restart doesn’t go 10 metres from Wales, which completes the full set of errors from the home side in this game. From the scrum the pace and power comes on from England and Cunningham-South puts the final flourish on an utterly dominant win.
TRY! Wales 14 – 61 England (Henry Pollock)
79 mins. It’s desperation time from Wales, which sees them trying to offload in their own 22 and leads to lost possession. England pounce on it and after a strong carry from Roebuck, Pollock takes a clever pass from Ford to claim his second try and put the victory in bold and large print.
TRY! Wales 14 – 54 England (Ben Thomas)
77 mins. Wales are in the English 5m zone and some small comfort comes from Ben Thomas running in after a lovely Evans pop pass.
74 mins. Rhodri Williams spills a Wainwright tap down forward, but there was an arm in the air from an England jumper. Wales will have a lineout in the 22 to salvage something from.
“Do you really have to revel so much in Wales’ misery?” asks Helen Krafts, “I mean, isn’t there quite enough of that in the world right now?”
Not sure how reporting a miserable performance as miserable is revelling, Helen. It’s hard not to sound like that’s what I’m doing as so much of it is utterly so.
TRY! Wales 7 – 54 England (Joe Heyes)
70 mins. Wales are falling apart, the latest symptom of which is not resourcing guards at the ruck properly that allows Willis to truck up to the line. He is stopped but offloads to Heyes who reaches an arm out to make the score ever more ugly.
TRY! Wales 7 – 47 England (Henry Pollock)
66 mins. A number of England phases in the 22 has Wales offside and on the advantage Ford fizzes a miss-two pass in front of the red defence to hit young debutant Pollock lurking on the right touchline. He gallops in, understandably delighted.
62 mins. The ball is secured by Wales on the England 10m line and the familiar story of non-penetrating phases settles in until they overwork it and Itoje wins a turnover.
60 mins. There is a low murmur of misery around the stadium as Wales labour in possession in their 22. However, it was on an advantage and there’s a relieving clearing kick that give an attacking opportunity in the England half.
58 mins. England have emptied their bench, which includes George Ford entering the fray. There’s a huge amount of time left and Ford’s brand of game management could be the perfect nightmare for Wales’s dignity.
TRY! Wales 7 – 40 England (Alex Mitchell)
55 mins. More ineffectual Welsh possession near halfway and Evans’s pass out of a tackle by Daly comes off the England man’s face to go forward, which he then hacks on and Mitchell is first to it on the chase to score.
Two points added. Normal service in the game resumed.
“England look too strong and clinical in their approach, and the score tells the whole story.” A very pithy summary from Kevan Pearson.
51 mins. Wales are having a mountain more possession than in the first half and the shape and rhythm of it is far better. However, this is down to England now fanning across the field rather than focusing on hammering the breakdown, leading to the home side looking neat but not moving forward much.
49 mins. Young winger Mee has just butchered a three on one overlap after some brilliant attacking work from Wales. Jarrod Evans is on and injecting a bit of dynamism which worked the ball right then all the way back left via a clever pattern to Mee who put his head down to score rather than feeding Llewellyn outside him. That would’ve created a walk-in, but instead the pass was late, rushed and went forward.
47 mins. Llewellyn hits the angle close in but as he attempts to recycle Ben Curry executes and incredible one-handed yoink of the ball that means his side can clear and reset.
46 mins. THe kick is too deep from Wales again but Mitchell fumbles an easy take that means the chasing Murray can hack it forward and sprint past Freeman in the footrace. Dingwall manages to get across to ground it in-goal, but as it was taken over by England, Wales will have a five metre scrum.
Blair Murray certainly cannot be blamed for his team’s situation, he’s been total pain in England’s proverbial
44 mins. Anscombe, who is having a horrible game, kicks too deep and this allows an easy claim for Marcus Smith. But the England takes a turn to kick poorly as he screws the ball out on the full.
42 mins. An early small victory for Wales as Itoje is penalised for a neck roll. The ball is sent to touch in the 22 but the lineout is a mess as England get up and compete. It ends with a knock-on by Rowlands and a large sigh from the crowd.
The replacement front row for Wales makes no difference and the pack split the scrum in two once more to win a relieving penalty.
Second Half!
Ben Thomas restarts via the boot.
Dewi Lake and Kieron Assiratti are on for Wales, with Elliott Dee and WillGriff John making way.
The try bonus point is already secured for England who will at least make France actually win the tournament in Paris later rather than by default.
Sometimes rugby is a simple game, it’s about being massively physically stronger than your opponents while being better organised. So far, England are that with bells on and Wales and flaking apart under the pressure and power.
The only tiny fragment of hope for the home side is that they have crossed the line twice, albeit with one disallowed, and the one real attack they had in the 22 breached England easily. However, it’s hard to see a situation where they stop Steve Borthwick’s men from scoring each time they have possession.
Half Time!
PEEEEEP! That’s the half.
TRY! Wales 7 – 33 England (Will Stuart)
40 mins. Some more nonsense from Wales in their own half gives the ball to England who currently have to do no more that have a few people have run with the ball before they score a try. This time it’s Stuart’s turn to be the one having the last carry of the ball over the line.
Fin Smith shows mercy by pulling his kick left.
TRY! Wales 7 – 28 England (Chandler Cunningham-South)
37 mins. Another turnover is won by Ben Earl at the breakdown, although for me he as clearly lying on top of the ruck when he snaffled the ball. This leads to the usual patter f England’s power driving them forward quickly and a few phase later the substiture hammers over with a straight carry.
Fin Smith adds two, and this has become a depressing evening already for Wales.
TRY! Wales 7 – 21 England (Tommy Freeman)
33 mins. Immediately after the restart Anscombe is slower than 99% of Adele songs in getting his kick away, which allows Tom Curry to charge it down. This puts England on the attack in the 22 and after moving the ball all the way out to Roebuck who is stopped by the defence, but it’s an easy job to come back infield to Freeman.
Converted.
TRY! Wales 7 – 14 England (Ben Thomas)
30 mins. Tee lineout is won securely at the front and after a few well timed drives Williams fires the ball to Thomas who walks through a gap near the right post.
Anscombe converts.
29 mins. Double figure phases for Wales in the England half. It looks neat and tidy but not hugely impactful, but even with that Earl can’t stay onside and Anscombe puts the ball deep into touch for a good lineout position.
26 mins. For all the dominance of England they are struggling to secure comfortable possession through a combination of Wales fanning out and frustrating them, and their own imprecision. The latest ball bobbling free is hacked on my Mee who gives chase only to see the ball roll into touch in the 22.
23 mins. Play stuck in the middle third of the field for a few minutes as kicks are traded. Murray spots some space behind, chips the kick and regathers, but as the open field to the line tantalisingly appears in front of him he’s brought to ground by a fantastic last ditch ankle tap by Cowan-Dickie. Try saver.
19 mins. A return to Wales’s 22 for England ends with no points, which is a novelty in the context of this game so far. Wales manage to clear after Faletau takes a settling carry up.
Ollie Chessum is injured and replaced by Chandler Cunningham-South.
17 mins. The home side really are all at sea at the moment. The latest bit of possession has Williams flinging the ball behind all his backline, which simply invites England forward to smother. There’s some kicks traded before the ball squirms into touch off Llewellyn’s hand as he tries to play a messy bobble.
14 mins. The ball is won safely by Wales but the possession is laboured and eventually Anscombe is caught without a runner to find. He is engulfed by a white wave and held up to give a scrum to England.
12 mins. Wales have hardly had any ball, but even so this in ominous start with England looking altogether too powerful in every facet combined with Fin Smith cannily running the attack. However, there’s a Welsh lineout platform coming on the 22 so let’s see what happens.
TRY! Wales 0 – 14 England (Tom Roebuck)
11 mins. The upshot of all that was an England scrum and Genge completely folds his opposite number to win a penalty. From the next possession England are snappy in their attack pattern with Earl straightening the line before Fin Smith floats a path to Roebuck who forces over the line despite the attention of three tacklers.
Conversion added
8 mins. Murray is over to touchdown for a try after claiming a loose ball on the right and haring 30 metres up the right touchline. There’s a long look by the TMO as the ball bobbled off a number of players before Murray gripped it and ran. There is no knock-on as it originally went forward of a red player’s head and this put every Welshman in front of play offside; this included Tomos Williams who then impeded an England defender.
No Try!
For those wondering, the officials today are
Referee: Nic Berry (Australia)
Assistant Referees: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia) and Hollie Davidson (Scotland)
Television Match Official (TMO): Mike Adamson (Scotland)
5 mins. Wales possession in the England half has Mee brought into the attack in midfield but he’s a little isolated and that allows Earl to get to the ball and win a turnover penalty. Fin Smith sends it to touch, but Cowan-Dickie’s throw isn’t straight.
TRY! Wales 0 – 7 England (Maro Itoje)
3 mins. It’s a simple peel off the lineout that Tom Curry drives to the line. He is stopped but next up Itoje takes turn and drives over to open the scoring very early and give England a perfect start.
Smith converts it.
2 mins. Wales receive, recycle and repel the ball back to their opponents with little fuss. Marcus Smith as a run back and as the visitors start to work phases in the Welsh half the defence is offside. England take the lineout option.
Kick Off!
Fin Smith boots the game into action
Alastair Connor emails:
“Borthwick persists with playing Marcus Smith out of position apparently in order to prove that he’s not the best option at 10, which we all know to be false. It’s already a failed experiment (I’m talking about Borthwick, I think)“
Out come the teams under the closed roof with the disco lights and pyrotechnics blazing. They line up for the pre-match formalities.
Teams
Matt Sherratt makes a couple of changes to his starting lineup; Joe Roberts replacing the injured Tom Rogers on the wing, and Aaron Wainwright picked to start on the flank ahead of Tommy Reffell. Nick Tompkins returns to a 5-3 split bench.
England have a number of changes, both personnel and positional as Steve Borthwick shuffles his side due to injury and rotation after the Italy win. Marcus Smith returns to fullback and Tommy Freeman shifts to centre in the absence of Olly Lawrence. Tom Roebuck fills the vacancy left by Freeman on the wing. In the forwards Luke Cowan-Dickie replaces Jamie George at hooker, and Ben Curry joins his twin brother Tom in the back row, with Ben Earl shifting to Number 8. The bench features a return for George Ford to a matchday squad and the inclusion of promising young flanker, Henry Pollock.
Wales:
Blair Murray, Ellis Mee, Max Llewellyn, Ben Thomas, Joe Roberts, Gareth Anscombe, Tomos Williams; Nicky Smith, Elliot Dee, WillGriff John, Will Rowlands, Dafydd Jenkins, Aaron Wainwright, Jac Morgan (captain), Taulupe Faletau.
Replacements: Dewi Lake, Gareth Thomas, Keiron Assiratti, Teddy Williams, Tommy Reffell, Rhodri Williams, Jarrod Evans, Nick Tompkins.
England:
Marcus Smith, Tom Roebuck, Tommy Freeman, Fraser Dingwall, Elliot Daly, Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Will Stuart, Maro Itoje, Ollie Chessum, Tom Curry, Ben Curry, Ben Earl.
Replacements: Jamie George, Fin Baxter, Joe Heyes, Chandler Cunningham-South, Henry Pollock, Tom Willis, Jack van Poortvliet, George Ford.
Hit me with your opinions. Have I been harsh in positing that England might not deserve to win the tournament? Your thoughts on this and more are welcomed via email.
Preamble
The recent passing of Gene Hackman prompted a rewatch of some of his greatest performances; among them his turn as Little Bill, the sheriff in Unforgiven. Facing his own impending death Bill states, “I don’t deserve this … I was building a house”, to which his assassin William Munny replies, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it”. This is so often the way; in films, in life, especially in sport and both teams start the match today with a chance of a prize neither of them have done an awful lot to earn.
After a spluttering, uninspiring few weeks and months, England could win the whole show via their newly found knack of grinding out tight wins against superior opposition. They will need a try bonus point and an unexpected result in Paris, but even so who saw this coming after the Autumn?
Wales on the other hand have an outside chance of losing this match but still not finishing bottom of the table; an act of grand larceny so heinous you would be forgiven for thinking Matt Sherratt was part of the Hatton Garden gang. Two bonus points will be needed here which is not on the outer limits of the plausibility scale. Or they could take the more mundane route of winning today, which opens a whole other rightfulness debate.
There’s much at stake and England and Wales could end up with nothing other than second and a wooden spoon respectively, which could be what they actually deserve. Not that this has much to do with it.
