Calm Welsh play and disciplinary self-destruction ended England’s Six Nations title hopes in a convincing but controversial win as the game finished Wales 40-24 England at the Principality Stadium.
Wales put up a solid performance yesterday evening to secure the Triple Crown against England.
Controversial decisions
The first-half involved two of the most controversial decisions in Six Nations history.
The first, stemmed from a penalty given away by Owen Farrell in the 16th minute.
The penalty count was too high for the referee Pascal Gauzere. He asked Farrell to talk to his team to keep it down.
From this, Wales fly half Dan Biggar kicked the ball towards Josh Adam’s on the wing within seconds of the referee telling England to sort out their discipline.
England weren’t set and Wales scored an east try. The referee gave the try leaving the England players visibly livid.
More controversy
The second controversial moment came in the 30th minute when Louis Rees-Zammit looked to have clearly knocked the ball on from a great run.
Liam Williams collected the loose ball and finished the try. The referee then gave the on-field decision as a try, went upstairs to the TMO who agreed.
England fought back hard towards the end of the first half and start of the second.
Six minutes from Williams’ try, Anthony Watson scored a great try following an English line out.
England attempted the rolling maul but were stopped by inspired Welsh defence.
They then took the ball out of maul and used the backs, great dummy runs, and quick passing sent England through to what could’ve been the start of a comeback.
Wales and England slowly kept the score ticking over after half-time. The biggest shift in momentum came in the 62nd minute with Ben Young’s scoring with his trademark dummy. Which sent three Welsh defenders the wrong way.
The chance came from a fantastic deep pass from George Ford who sold four Welsh players and Elliot Daly could make 20 metres down the left wing. This try made the score 24-24
England’s downfall
England’s downfall was unsurprisingly their lack of discipline as they gave away three penalties within 12 minutes of them equalling the score. Callum Sheedy slotted all three expertly.
In the game as a whole England conceded 14 penalties and were very lucky not to get a card of any colour.
Wales ended the game in the last play with Cory Hill scoring a try from a Welsh scrum on the English five-metre line.
He burrowed his way through the English defence to make the score 38-24.
Callum Sheedy scored the simple conversion making it 40-24 with four seconds remaining, full time, Wales 40-24 England.
Wales still have hopes for a Grand Slam and travel to Italy as heavy favourites.
England face France at Twickenham in a game the home team as the underdogs.
By Joe Hayhurst
