Heart and soul ensure Welsh refuse to go down without a fight

Despite being outmuscled for much of match, visitors threaten an upset, writes Mick Cleary at Twickenham

They travelled not in hope, but with a knot in their stomach, all too aware that Twickenham has proved to be an unforgiving venue down the years and looked all the more foreboding for Wales after successive defeats in this tournament.

But hwyl can take you to tantalising places, a promised land of possibility. There was a sense of joyous uplift as Justin Tipuric rounded off a length-ofthe-field sequence for a try within 23 seconds of the second-half restart. Wales closed to within four points and the dramatic revival was under way.

The denouement, with England reduced to 13 men and Twickenham nerves jangling, was a fitting reward for the sheer bloody-mindedness of Wales’s performance as they scored two late tries. They were bested, but they refused to go quietly into that dark night. The scoreboard told you much of what you needed to know about the spirit and fortitude of Wales.

That innate Welsh passion effectively had been in danger of having the life squeezed from it by the remorseless muscularity of the English pack. The defending Grand Slam champions were under the pump for long stretches, but they did not wilt. The stats, though, may not make for great reading as this was Wales’s third defeat in this dislocated championship. The fact that they have not had such a miserable return in 13 years is misleading. Warren Gatland was drafted to right that wrong of 2007. There are signs, though, that Wayne Pivac has the faith of his players to complete his mission.

Rugby matches can be influenced by heart and soul as much as by muscle and bone. And so it proved. The points of resistance were summed up in the ever-willing duo of fly-half Dan Biggar and captain Alun Wyn Jones. Not even a cheeky testicle grab from England prop Joe Marler could put Jones off his game. We all know that game – flinty, grafting, cloying, streetwise.

Throughout there was a sense of togetherness, of defiance and even of an outlandish outcome, if only Wales could shake themselves free of the white-clad stranglehold. A half-time resetting of focus did the trick. Centre Nick Tompkins went on a spirited adventure that was to result in that try under the posts for Tipuric (below) with only 23 second-half seconds on the clock.

Wales were willing but they were faced by white-shirted might, almost from the moment that Biggar was flattened by a double-whammy of Manu Tuilagi and Tom Curry in the opening minutes, a statement tackle if ever there was one. Biggar being Biggar rose from the turf. Come the day, Biggar’s mausoleum will need the full concrete job to stop him rolling back the stone. There may be more poetic fly-halves, but there are none more feisty and competitive. His varied kicking skills, dinking it flat right and left, kept England’s defence on their toes right to the final whistle as he skidded over for one of the late tries. Biggar finished with 14 points, but it was his cussedness that defined him and his team-mates.

There was a costly set-piece vulnerability, particularly in the scrum. The Welsh pack splintered on the half-hour mark, leading to Elliot Daly scooting in at the corner. England could sniff that frailty and knew they could look to exploit it when needed.

The game in Wales has had its issues with finance and underperforming regions, but it will always endure because there is an umbilical cord between the sport and the community, evidenced in the poignant outpouring of sorrow at the death of former international centre Matthew J Watkins from pelvic cancer at the age of 41. Watkins was in the side the day that Alun Wyn Jones made his debut in 2006. How fickle real life can be.

It was, though, a suitably invigorating Wales display.