Why Wales defeat was not ‘perfect’ for ambitious England
Yes, it was only a friendly Test but there were several areas of concern ahead of the World Cup
Lions fail to shift outcome
It seems that England are shuffling rather than sprinting towards the World Cup. One step forward last week at Twickenham, one step back at the Principality Stadium on Saturday, much like their Six Nations Championship campaign.
The clean bill of health reported from England physios remains more important than the 13-6 scoreline, but so much of the optimism engendered by the first leg of their double-header against Wales now seems misplaced.
After the fun in the sun of their 33-19 throw-around, this was, as Wales head coach Warren Gatland observed, a “proper Test match” with a ton of niggle, which is exactly what England head coach Eddie Jones said he wanted. “Today was almost the perfect World Cup prep game for us,” Jones said. “We deliberately set it up, putting our young team out to test their mentality. I thought they handled it well.”
Yet while it is true that Wales started with the more experienced XV, England headed into the final quarter with 11 British and Irish Lions on the field and were still found wanting.
Lapse in attention England will feel aggrieved at the circumstances leading up to George North’s try. Referee Pascal Gauzere incorrectly allowed Dan Biggar to take a penalty while Anthony Watson was still making his way to the sin-bin and Ben Youngs was waiting to replace Willi Heinz. “I think we all thought that was the law,” Jones said. “So maybe the yellow card should have gone to the referee.”
That the score should not have stood is a moot point; England had just come out of a minute-plus team huddle and still failed to react. “It’s happened here and I dare say something like that will not happen again,” Youngs, the replacement scrum-half, said. “There’s nothing as players that you can do about that except take the one lesson which is don’t switch off when there’s a penalty.”
Kicking game second best
England’s problems went beyond one momentary lapse in concentration. They too often seemed to be caught between two stools, neither kicking to compete nor for territory. Only one kick, a George Ford high ball which was spilt by Leigh Halfpenny, was successfully regathered.
Wales by contrast were far more aggressive in their aerial contests led by Biggar and Halfpenny, even if Watson provided some strong competition. Nor could England get anything going on the front foot, with Halfpenny doing an excellent job of mopping up several grubbers behind while Ford twice kicked the ball dead from good positions.
Bullied at breakdown
Wales completely turned the tables from last week by displaying far more intensity at the breakdown. England’s best spells of first-half possession were both ended when Nicky Smith and then Josh Navidi got over the ball to force penalties for not releasing.
It was a similar story in the second half as England’s most threatening attack, which involved George, Youngs and Watson combining down the right-hand side, came to nought as Lewis Ludlam became isolated and was picked off by Ken Owens. Even if they were not forcing penalties, Wales continually slowed the ball down, putting the brakes on an already ponderous England attack. Blunt attack England’s tally of six points is their lowest score in six years after a chastening 30-3 defeat at the same venue. Partly as a result of conceding so much territory and possession, it took 32 minutes just for England to enter the Wales 22 and that only lasted a couple of seconds as Heinz knocked on in the tackle.
They did get behind the Wales defence in the second half, notably with the Watson break and Maro Itoje intercept but, on both occasions, poor decision-making cost England. Credit must go to Shaun Edwards, Wales’s defence coach, but as Youngs admitted: “We let them get off the hook through our inaccuracies.”
Like every other team, England are holding back many planned moves in the warm-up matches, which Youngs also felt constricted their options. “We’re going into these games without much on the menu in terms of attack because you don’t want to show much,” Youngs said. “It tests us when you keep going back to the same moves, but that’s fine.”
Maul stalled
A few fans inside the Principality Stadium might have had a case of deja vu of four years ago as England kicked to the corner with time almost up, only for Wales to sack the close-range line-out. Twice in the second half and once in the first, England threw short and Wales stopped the maul in its tracks forcing turnovers.
“One of the lads said we didn’t stay square enough and allowed them to turn us,” Courtney Lawes, the loose forward, said. “Our scrum went really well, but we didn’t translate that well into the maul.”
As with England’s attacking strike moves, Jones says they have more up their sleeve and declared himself unconcerned by the number Wales did on the maul.
“No, not at all,” Jones said. “That’s what these games are for. We went in with a particular strategy, we wanted to get our maul stronger and obviously the defence knows what you are going to do. If you add a few variations, it becomes harder to defend.” In fact, little else seemed to concern Jones. “I’m so pleased with our performance,” he said. “It’s an outstanding game for us.” Beauty, clearly, is in the eye of the beholder.
Scores 3-0 Biggar pen; 8-0 North try; 10-0 Biggar con; 10-3 Ford pen; 10-6 Ford pen; 13-6 Halfpenny pen.
Wales L Halfpenny; G North, J Davies (J Navidi 24), H Parkes (O Watkin 75), J Adams; D Biggar (J Evans 75), G Davies (A Davies 61); N Smith (W Jones 47), K Owens, T Francis (D Lewis 47), J Ball (E Dee 66), A Wyn Jones, A Wainwright (A Shingler 41), J Davies, R Moriarty.
England E Daly; A Watson, J Joseph, P Francis (O Farrell 52), J Cokanasiga; G Ford (M Tuilagi 61), W Heinz (B Youngs 47); E Genge (J Marler 45), L Cowan-dickie (J George 45), D Cole (K Sinckler 61), J Launchbury (G Kruis 54), M Itoje, C Lawes, L Ludlam (J Singleton 76), B Vunipola. Sin-bin Watson (31).
Referee Pascal Gauzere (France).