Hill try inspires sense of history
HISTORY repeated itself in the Cardiff cauldron. After the final act, when Aled Davies had booted the ball out of play, Alun Wyn Jones opened his arms and let out the ultimate victory roar.
England have a habit of losing half-time leads to Wales and they surrendered another last night.
Wales triumphed through two late tries from Cory Hill and Josh Adams, upsetting the odds to leave 2019 up there with 2015, 2013 and 1999.
England had bullied their hosts for 40 minutes but Wales dipped deep into their reserves, squeezing out every last drop of emotion.
The introduction of Dan Biggar from the bench turned things in their favour and, as their Grand Slam bid came back to life, the Cardiff night was filled with dregs of beer as pint cups flew.
The 35 phases in the build-up to Hill’s game-turning try will be replayed for years. In the shorter term, Wales will take the bragging rights into the World Cup. They are unbeaten in 12 and broke a winning record dating back 109 years.
There was no love lost on the field. After Elliot Daly missed an early penalty, Owen Farrell landed a big hit on his opposite man in midfield. Cue the noise.
By half-time, Tom Curry and Kyle Sinckler had already made 16 tackles each. England had beaten up Wales in the contact area and forced the hosts backwards any time they got within sniffing distance of England’s tryline.
In contrast, England had two visits to the Welsh 22 which earned two scores: a penalty and a try. They were dominant in the setpiece and Sinckler kept his cool in the face of Welsh antagonism.
Wales’ lineout was woeful, losing three from six under pressure from George Kruis, and they conceded a scrum penalty under pressure from Sinckler. Step up Farrell to kick the penalty after 17 minutes as England drew first blood.
Sinckler picked up and dumped Jones backwards. Warren Gatland had branded the prop a ‘timebomb’ — this was a case of ‘tick, tick… boom’.
Gareth Anscombe drew the scores level after a high tackle but those were Wales’ only first-half points.
No Mako or Maro? No problem, it seemed for England. In their absence, Manu Tuilagi and Billy Vunipola rumbled the ball forwards and set up a ruck in midfield. Wales were more interested in rubbing Ben Youngs’ face in the mud and, when the ball slipped out, Curry darted from the back of the ruck past Justin Tipuric, who was looking the other way, to score.
Anscombe’s attempts to chip over the defence did not come off and, by half-time, Wales were relieved only to be seven down. But 12 minutes in the second half, the Kiwi landed a crossfield kick on Jonny May, who was turned over by Liam Williams.
The out-half kicked the penalty and Cardiff came alive again as they did when he slotted over another just before the hour before making way for Biggar.
Farrell kicked his side’s first points of the half but, after 69 minutes, the tables turned. Biggar directed the flow of traffic for 35 famous phases. George North surged up the right wing before Hill collected the ball and stretched over.
Moments later, Biggar gathered one of his classic high balls before the Liam Williams did the same.
Wales won a penalty and, with two minutes left, Biggar kicked across field. Adams leapt to pick the ball out of the sky with two hands. The rest was history.
Wales: L Williams; North, J Davies, Parkes, Adams; Anscombe (Biggar 61min), G Davies (A Davies 77); R Evans (Smith 61), Owens (Dee 77), Francis (Lewis 61), Hill (Beard 71), A Jones, Navidi, Tipuric, Moriarty (Wainwright 77). Replacements (not used): Watkin. england: Daly; Nowell, Slade, Tuilagi, May (Cokanasiga 70); Farrell, Youngs; Moon (Shields 77), George, Sinckler (Williams 57), Lawes (Genge 77), Kruis (Launchbury 64), Wilson, Curry, B Vunipola. Replacements (not used): Cowan-Dickie, Robson, Ford. Referee: J Peyper (South Africa).