Wales are denied as errors prevail - Match report England 30 Wales 17 (From Campaign Series)

Wales are denied as errors prevail - Match report England 30 Wales 17

11:20am Monday 8th February 2010

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THIS was the one that got away. Instead of marking the centenary of matches at Twickenham by rubbing English noses into the turf, Wales let their hosts off the hook.

It wasn’t one moment of madness that cost them victory and their first back-to-back victories at Twicken-ham for 32 years, it was two.

The first came when lock Alun Wyn Jones foolishly – or stupidly, as coach Warren Gatland put it afterwards – tripped England hooker Dylan Hartley, rightly getting himself yellow-carded, a mistake so costly that England scored 17 points during his absence.

And the second came when Wales were chasing the game, on a roll having scored 14 unanswered points and looking really dangerous, only for outside-half Stephen Jones to have a pass intercepted by full back Delon Armitage which sparked a sweeping move ending in James Haskell’s second and match-winning try.

The match brought memories of two years ago flooding back as Wales once again trailed by a similar margin at half-time, 13-3 compared with 16-6, soon stretched to 20-3.

But again Wales stormed back and looked fully capable of taking the spoils. They opted for a series of scrums near the England line and after a switch of direction the unlikely figure of Adam Jones popped up on the outside for the first retaliatory try, Wyn Jones making minor amends by giving him a decent scoring pass as the ball was moved wide.

Stephen Jones converted and then added the extra points to a stunning try by Wales man-of-the-match James Hook, who feinted outside and then swept away on the inside in a lovely balanced run for another try, having left Tim Payne, Mattew Tait and Jonny Wilkinson trailing in his wake.

At 20-17 Wales looked set for a repeat of that memorable comeback two years before, but outside-half Jones then had a pass intercepted by Armitage, centres Toby Flood and Tait carried the move on, and with Wales in disarray Tait threw in a reverse pass which Haskell eagerly accepted to cross for his second try, the eager blindside flanker also voted man of the match.

Jonny Wilkinson converted that try and then added a long- range penalty to break Welsh hearts and snuff out their hopes of victory after another Twickenham revival.

Those two mistakes had cost Wales dearly, but there were other factors in this latest Twickenham setback, notably the line-outs and in particular the throwing in.

Gareth Williams’ faults in that area returned to haunt him with his inaccuracy and Wales lost as many as five line-outs on their own throw. You can’t expect to win an international with that kind of statistic. Quite simply, the line-out was a Welsh disaster area.

But at least the Welsh scrum was solid despite the absence of two Lions in Gethin Jenkins and Matthew Rees, Paul James an admirable deputy for Jenkins on the loose head after playing at tight head in the autumn series.

And Hook lit the fuse for the Welsh revival with some delightful running, one piece of deception opening the way for Tom James, only for otherwise excellent referee Alain Rolland to rule a knock on when the ball rebounded from the winger’s chest.

At least the second half was a whole lot better than the first, which fell flat with little flow or continuity and at one stage had the crowd on the verge of booing when the wretched aerial ping-pong took a hold again.

And if Wales had their problems, England by no means wore the look of champions and for all their possession the backs rarely threatened.

Scrum-half Danny Care did nip through an inviting gap to score an opportunist try, but considering the attacking threequarter line on the field they didn’t reveal any flair, while Armitage didn’t impress either.

Wilkinson was Wilkinson, probing and kicking and steadily racking up the points, contributing 15 from three penalties and three conversions for a 100% success rate and a pretty important cog in the machine, though never threatening as a runner.

But England couldn’t get away, even with that 20-3 lead, and Wales remained well in the hunt. They can take plenty out of the game despite their defeat in the knowledge that they possess potentially the best runner in the championship in Hook, while there is clearly scope for improvement with the return of key personnel.

Apart from Jenkins and Rees, scrum-half Mike Phillips is poised to come back. The bulldozing No 9 is key to Welsh hopes and is due to have a couple of games for Swansea before launching a serious comeback for region and country.

The France game at the end of the month may come a little too early for him, but he appears on target for the final two matches against Ireland and Italy.

The hope from a Welsh point of view is that by then it won’t be too late. If it is, the final match of this year’s Six Nations against Italy will be a massive Millennium Stadium anti-climax.

England: D Armitage, M Cueto, M Tait, T Flood (D Hipkiss 77), U Monye, J Wilkinson, D Care (P Hodson 76), T Payne, D Hartley (S Thompson 60), D Wilson (D Cole 60), S Shaw (L Deacon 60), S Borthwick (captain), J Haskell, N Easter, L Moody (S Armitage 76).

Scorers – tries: J Haskell (2), D Care; conversions: J Wilkisnson (3); penalties: Wilkinson (3).

Wales: L Byrne, T James (L Halfpenny 65), J Hook, J Roberts, S Williams, S Jones, G Cooper (R Rees 68), P James, G Williams (H Bennett 54), A Jones, L Charteris (B Davies 13-16, 54), A W Jones, A Powell (J Thomas 68), R Jones (captain), M Williams.

Scorers – tries: A Jones, J Hook; conversions: S Jones (2); penalty: Jones.

Referee: Alain Rolland (Ireland).

Attendance: 81,406.

Argus star man: James Hook.

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