MAKE NO MISTAKE, THIS IS A BIG WORRY FOR ENGLAND

Yes, the referee did gift Wales 14 points with two simply unfathomable errors, but...

IT is difficult to know where to start with this game. It is going to take 24 hours to take everything in. Was the referee absolutely shocking in the first half and were Wales gifted two tries? Yes, in my opinion unquestionably but did Wales deserved to win that game? Yes, they did. They didn’t play brilliantly but over 80 minutes they were the better side and that is a big worry for England supporters.

What Wales again did brilliantly, to borrow a phrase Jamie Roberts used when we talked last week, was ‘nail the last 20 minutes’.

After 60 minutes, England were still very much in the game, having fought back pretty well actually, but then it was Wales who played the canny, intelligent, winning rugby. There was only one side in it during this decisive phase of the game.

England, just when they wanted to be at their best, suddenly started replicating all their recent failings. Ill-discipline — it was penalties that basically cost England this game — and sloppy defence. Maro Itoje did lots of very good things but even he was giving away too many penalties.

I feared this result — England have worried me for a good while now, ever since the 2019 World Cup final — but I would never have predicted the scoreline. Save for the last 20 minutes, I am not convinced Wales played particularly well and this is possibly the strangest Triple Crown in their history.

As for England? We can’t however ignore the elephant in the room here and that is England were at the wrong end of two vital, mystifying decisions that cost them in terms of points at an important stage of the game.

The referee and the TMO just has too big an influence on the game for anybody to be comfortable with but England really have to look at themselves as well.

With the scores level, they coughed up three of the most unnecessary penalties imaginable and Callum Sheedy made them pay off the tee while the tapped penalty that Kieran Hardy took was a soft score as well. There was no way back after that.

The first Wales try was unfathomable and unforgivable really. The referee ordered Owen Farrell to go and have a word with his players after persistent offending and he obeyed — running off to call them into a quick circle 25 yards away under the posts.

Pascal Gauzere and Dan Biggar then seemed to have their own private conversation where the penalty was awarded when the referee told the Wales fly-half the time was back on.

I’m not even sure whether Farrell had started having his word with the players. Certainly they had no way of knowing the ref had started the clock again.

Biggar then decided to kick pass to the left wing rather than at goal. It was ludicrous that the ref allowed play to continue as was the fact that there seemed to be four or five Wales water carriers on the pitch. Now that’s not permissible either.

If a shot at goal had been called it is slightly different. You often see a player being treated or taking on liquid while a colleague takes a kick at goal but while the ball is still live, while Wales still had the option to tap and go or put in a cross field kick, those players simply can’t be on the pitch.

They could interfere with play, they could distract England. Having rushed on uninvited for noninjury related issues, they must be off the pitch before play resumes.

Farrell, as captain, correctly pointed this out and was totally ignored. You could argue Farrell had lost the referee at this stage but equally the French official is experienced enough to know he had made a shocking mistake and the England skipper deserved to be heard. It should have gone upstairs when all would have become clear.

I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Referees make mistakes but Gauzere needed to rectify this as soon as possible. Rugby has a major credibility issue here.

This was the biggest game in the world yesterday, controlled by somebody who is meant to be one of the very best professional refs in the world. It’s really difficult to widen the game’s appeal, get more people involved, when we can’t get something as simple as this correct. It undermines all the other good work. It was just so amateur.

And then second Wales try from Liam Williams. Anybody who has ever played rugby will know that Louis Rees-Zammit had knocked on after his failed attempt to catch it. He lost possession and because he was travelling at high pace the ball was moving forward before it hit a part o f hi s body a nd rolled forward again.

A disappointed Rees-Zammit was visibly annoyed that he had knocked on, Wales knew he had knocked on and so did England. The players always know, their instant reaction speaks a thousand words.

There wasn’t any controversy until t he r eferee r andomly decided to award the try. Onfield decision: ‘Try’. Then you are in the lap of the gods and, if the TMO is in a perverse mood or sees it differently, you get an extraordinary decision.

When you play away — whether there is a crowd or not — you know the 50-50 calls will go against you but any side in the world would rightly be extremely unhappy with those two decisions. I am trying to be diplomatic here.

Trying to be positive, England responded really well in bursts, some lovely quick hands, purposeful running and great tempo. But the key word is bursts.

They seem to be able to turn it on for three or four minutes and then the go back in their shell.

When they do turn it on they look world beaters — as good as anything so far in the Six Nations — but it needs an 80-minute performance.