Edgy England hold off fierce Welsh rally at Twickenham
THE best action at Twickenham yesterday was on the big screen in the West Stand car park, just outside the Guinness tent. Fans wooed at France’s try-scoring masterclass at Murrayfield in the early kick-off, before settling into their seats to watch England.
In this new era of bite-sized TikTok videos, the bulk of England’s attacking play could easily be crunched down into a 60-second clip. They were outscored by three tries to one, with their lone score by Alex Dombrandt coming from a botched lineout that should never have stood.
Judging by his distant looks when he repeatedly appeared on the big screen, young Prince George will not be begging his parents to bring him back for the round-four clash with Ireland.
The scoreline went England’s way but the performance did not. They were far from clinical, which was the buzzword of Eddie Jones’s press conference, and almost blew a 17-0 lead. They had ample chances to score tries but repeatedly froze in the Welsh 22. Plenty to think about.
Referee Mike Adamson played his part in the anti-spectacle, repeatedly slowing down the play, preventing nippy scrum-halves Harry Randall and Tomos Williams from bursting into life.
In the first half, he penalised Wales eight times at the breakdown and provided Marcus Smith with the platform to kick England into an unassailable lead.
England’s forwards won the collisions in the early rounds. Arch powerhouse Manu Tuilagi may have been missing through injury, but the likes of Maro Itoje and Tom Curry ensured there was no shortage of muscle. In the first half, Wales were abject. They looked like the weakest Welsh side to turn up at Twickenham for years, butchering lineouts, shapeless in attack and relying on hit-and-hope charges from the born-again Alex Cuthbert.
Yet, the hosts failed to capitalise. Lock Charlie Ewels got whiteline fever and England failed to punish Wales when Liam Williams was sent to the sin-bin for killing the ball. Elliot Daly — Tuilagi’s replacement — kicked away a promising attack and Max Malins fumbled at the end of a scintillating break. And there was collateral damage, with Curry withdrawing with a head knock and Luke Cowan-Dickie hobbling off with a potentially tournamentending knee injury.
‘Luke will go for a scan, confirmed Jones. ‘It’ll make it difficult for him to play in the rest of the Six Nations but we’re not sure about it yet.’
There were flashes of instinctiveness by Smith and a meteoric 50-22 kick by Henry Slade, yet the only try came in the 42nd minute, when Wales hooker Ryan Elias threw a calamitous lineout into the arms of Dombrandt. England’s No 8 claimed the ball at the tail with alarming ease, before running over Cuthbert to score. It left Wales coach Wayne Pivac seething, with the replay showing that Itoje had pushed Adam Beard to prevent the lock from competing.
‘He was chased out of the lineout and bumped, which you can’t do,’ said Pivac. ‘Unfortunately, that wasn’t picked up and the try stands. It’s not very often you throw over the top close to your line. It’s unfortunate that no one picked it up. From the replay, there was certainly an offence.’
England’s lack of clinicality so came back to bite them. A long kick by Liam Williams got the scoreless Wales into England territory. Attacking from the lineout, Wales moved from right to left before Tomos Williams fizzed a miss pass into the arms of Josh Adams to score down the wing.
In the closing 20 minutes, Wales came alive. Returning No 8 Taulupe Faletau epitomised their never-say-die attitude, pumping his legs through tackles to help build phases. Their pack rode some heavy hits by Ellis Genge, before centre Nick Tompkins spotted a hole to score a second try in seven minutes.
Jones said: ‘We put ourselves in a good winning position in the first 50 minutes, had a period there 10, 15, 20 minutes where we were a bit untidy in defence and let them back in the game.
‘For a young team, there were some good signs out there. We got ourselves in a lot of good attacking positions and we weren’t able to convert that to points.’
Smith edged England further ahead with two late penalties, when Cuthbert was caught running out of his own 22 and Nick Isiekwe was illegally challenged at the lineout. But Wales struck late through a tap-and-go try from replacement scrum-half Kieran Hardy.
But England clung onto their four-point lead.