It’s May’s day
Underhill’s one in 100 tackle denies Gatland’s unlucky Welsh battlers
EDDIE JONES’S England side battled to victory over Wales at Twickenham thanks to two Jonny May tries yesterday... but it was close! Wales had what seemed a good try by Gareth Anscombe disallowed by the TV official and Sam Underhill had to make a last-ditch tackle to stop a seemingly certain Scott Williams try on the line.
AN old-fashioned scoreline and an old-fashioned Test match but this game was none the worse for it. England weren’t at their best in tricky conditions but they did defend well, their set-piece was pretty good and they will be delighted to be heading to Edinburgh in a fortnight unbeaten and with power to add.
These are the sort of games that you have to win to take Championship titles, secure Grand Slams and win World Cups. England can go away and work on their attack, which went quiet after the first quarter, but you also have to give huge credit to a very fit and determined Wales side, who improved as the match progressed.
It was a fascinating first half with England very quick out of the blocks to score two good tries but Wales came back strongly and were hard done by not to have that ‘try’ by Gareth Anscombe allowed.
The key at the start was England playing intelligently up front and opting for a pick-and-go game in the forwards against a Wales team who weren’t prepared to commit many forwards to the breakdown. That gave England, for the first 20 minutes at least, good go-forward and control.
The first try was wonderfully simple and all about Owen Farrell’s vision and Jonny May’s gas. Farrell saw it was on straightaway when the ball came his way and, instead of passing, he knew that May would be even more dangerous given a kick through to chase.
He weighted it perfectly but there was still work to do even for a speedster like May who was up against another quick man in Josh Adams. May got his nose in front but took it brilliantly to slide in.
England’s second try also saw May at his best as he tracked across field superbly to pop up at exactly the right time to latch on to Joe Launchbury’s clever offload.
But then England went away from their game-plan a little and Wales came back strongly and there was a strong case in my opinion for a try when Anscombe seemed to get the first touch ahead of Anthony Watson when the ball came off Steff Evans’ knee.
You don’t have to apply downward pressure any more, you simply have to get a hand on the ball when it is on the ground in goal and not knock it on. The law allows a bit of a grey area but for me Anscombe did just that and if I was in the Wales camp I would feel aggrieved. Let’s face it, given the final score, it was a huge moment. I wonder if the same call would have been made for an identical play at the Principality Stadium?
After the break, England went back to the pick-and-go game — killer we used to call it — and initially it seemed to be working, but they couldn’t convert pressure into points and then Wales decided to abandon their kicking game, which hadn’t been working well.
The conditions were poor — wet and slippery — and didn’t really suit the Scarlets’ approach, but then they went for broke, moving Anscombe up to No 10 and bringing George North on, with Josh Adams going to full-back. It was a brave and intelligent move.
The injury to Sam Simmonds cost England a ball carrier, but I have to say Sam Underhill proved his worth with that magnificent try-saving tackle on Scott Williams.
It looked a try all the way, in fact I can’t ever remember a try being
stopped when a player has gone for that early dive to surf in on top of the wet surface, but somehow Underhill managed to flip him up and pull him in to touch. That must take incredible strength and intelligence.
If you look at the replay, he slips 40 metres upfield just as Wales are attacking and he bounces back up and sprints the first five to 10 metres as if it were an Olympic 100m final even t hough he di dn’t know at t hat moment he would be needed at the denouement.
And then, when he got there, he didn’t just make a despairing effort, he did the only thing that could prevent a Wales try. You could watch that scenario 100 times and the attacker would score on 99 occasions.