Wales down ill-disciplined England
By Julian Guyer, 15 Feb 2009 Julian Guyer is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- Andy Goode, England, penalties, scrum, Shane Williams, Six Nations, Wales
Reigning Six Nations champions Wales kept their quest for back-to-back grand slams on track with a thrilling 23-15 win over England at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.
England, much derided as an attacking force against the major nations, outscored Wales by two tries to one.
But they were made to pay dearly for their indiscipline, with Wales kicking six penalties through the boots of Stephen Jones and Leigh Halfpenny.
Wales, who started the defence of their title with a 26-13 win away to Scotland, were forced into a late change when star wing Shane Williams, the world player of the year, failed a fitness test on an ankle injury and had to be replaced by Mark Jones.
In the third minute they were awarded a penalty in front of the England posts which outside-half Jones converted.
England collected their seventh yellow card in three matches when recalled 2003 World Cup-winning centre Mike Tindall was sin-binned by South African referee Jonathan Kaplan for not releasing the tackled Halfpenny in the 16th minute.
Stephen Jones made no mistake and Wales, against an England team now down to 14 men, were 6-0 up.
England gave away another penalty when a scrum collapsed and from 46 metres Halfpenny was on target.
But it was England, against the run of play, who scored the game’s first try in the 24th minute.
New Zealand-born centre Riki Flutey made the break before flyhalf Andy Goode chipped ahead for a race won in the corner by right winger Paul Sackey.
Goode missed the difficult conversion but was on target with a drop-goal that cut Wales’s lead to just 9-8, which they took to halftime.
England found themselves a man down again when Goode was yellow-carded early in the second half.
Jones kicked the resulting penalty and there was better to come for Wales when Halfpenny capitalised on an overlap to score and take the lead out to 17-8.
Jones’s scything break took him deep into the 22 and when England were caught offside, he kicked his fourth penalty to extend Wales’s lead to 20-8.
However, England hit back with a brilliant 40m individual try by fullback Delon Armitage which was converted by Toby Flood.
Jones’s fifth penalty then made it 23-15 and England’s hopes of one last recovery faded when Flood’s penalty six minutes from time went wide.
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pothale said | February 15th 2009 @ 10:40am | Report comment
So, in summary, Wales – the NH poster boys for ball-in-hand rugby – won by kicking lots of penalty goals. Don’t you just love this glorious evocation of the eminently sensible ELVs that Wales are apparently so good at? :/
TahDan said | February 15th 2009 @ 5:21pm | Report comment
That’s one way of putting it. Another way would be to say that, in summary, Wales had their play stifled by constant slowing and infringements by England, resulting in potential try scoring opportunities being limited to penalty goals. Yes, England scored a couple good tries, but it was their insistance on negative play that lost them the game.
Colin N said | February 15th 2009 @ 10:04pm | Report comment
TahDan,
Wales slowed it down just as much as England, but they weren’t penalised like England were.
stuff happens said | February 17th 2009 @ 5:55pm | Report comment
The reasons Wales won by penalty goals were firstly, the English defence for a long time was excellent particularly Worsley who was fantastic, and secondly,England seemed to have a game plan that if all seems lost just lie on the ball. I thought Kaplan was generous to England in the first 20 mins – they repeatedly prevented the ball from being released.
I don’t understand the comment that ‘Wales slowed it down as much as England’. The whole Welsh game plan requires fast ball.
Having said all that England should take a lot from a game that they were supposed to lose big time.I suspect they played better than they thought they would (Attack!. )
Wales on the other hand look to me like a more complete side each time they play.They don’t panic in attack or defence if play does not go their way,they have a very good squad of players and for once the WRU made an inspired decision with Gatland /Edwards.
The next matches in two weeks will be very interesting: Ire v Eng in Dublin and France v Wales in Paris.