DALY DELIGHT
Daly the hero for visitors after Davies’ slip-up lets English steal winning try
Last-gasp try sinks Wales
ELLIOT DALY was England’s try-scoring hero as Eddie Jones’s men left it late for the second week running to maintain their unbeaten run with a truly extraordinary win.
England will have left Cardiff last night barely knowing how they clawed victory back from the jaws of defeat. Jonathan Davies, whose missed touch led directly to Daly’s last-gasp try, will be having nightmares for years to come.
They say international games are won by small margins and Davies’s howler gave England the chance to pounce. And they did, in style.
With his side trailing 16-14 with barely four minutes left on the clock, the England winger took advantage of Davies’ missed touch to score a fine try down the left hand side that broke Welsh hearts.
Owen Farrell converted in front of a stunned Principality Stadium crowd as England repeated their escape act against France last week with a stunning late victory which makes it 16 straight wins, 15 of them coming under Jones.
Asked what ingredient had driven England to victory, the coach said: ‘It’s grit. The players believe they can be the best.
‘I never think we are going to lose, but we don’t want all our games to be that tight. Our first 20 minutes were really good but we were one or two tackles away from our best. We were always in the game. We always thought if we got possession we could get back into the game.’
It was Wales who struck the first blow when Courtney Lawes was penalised for not rolling away and full-back Leigh Halfpenny landed an early penalty from 35 metres.
England struck back when Scott Williams was penalised for a high tackle on Jack Nowell and Farrell slotted a penalty from the right.
The visitors went through 26 phases in the build-up to Ben Youngs’s opening try, created by some superb interplay between Jonathan Joseph, Daly and Mike Brown.
Farrell missed the conversion and Wales responded immediately when Dan Cole was penalised for slowing the ball down. Halfpenny kicked his second penalty to make it 8-6 after 23 minutes.
Continual Wales’ pressure told on England when Liam Williams crossed after a beautifully executed move from the base of a five-metre scrum which saw Farrell and Jack Clifford both left flat-footed as the blindside winger swept behind his own three-quarters before cutting a superb line off Ryhs Webb.
Halfpenny’s conversion made it 13-8 at half time. Game on.
Jones replaced captain Dylan Hartley with Jamie George on 46 minutes and James Haskell replaced Clifford two minutes later. Wales replaced both their props, while Ross Moriarty was replaced on 52 minutes by Taulupe Faletau.
Wales held the upper hand but England hung on and closed the gap to two points when Farrell kicked his second penalty on 56 minutes.
Halfpenny then made it 16-11 with a simple penalty with 19 minutes left on the clock.
Just as England were pressing the Welsh line, Youngs threw an awful, floaty pass which Dan Biggar intercepted before sprinting 50 metres up field and hacking the ball forward, forcing Daly to clear into touch deep in England’s half.
England, however, battled back upfield and Farrell kicked his third penalty on 70 minutes, and then a scything run from replacement Ben Te’o almost led to a try for Danny Care before Davies missed touch with a clearance.
It was to prove a tragic moment for Wales, as George Ford whipped the ball to Farrell who fed Daly to scream over in the left corner.
Captain Alun Wyn Jones admitted Wales had fallen short. He said: ‘It was a 75-minute performance from us. That was the difference. We didn’t maintain our intensity for the whole of the second half.’