Elliot Daly scored a 76th-minute try to hand England a thrilling 21-16 win over Wales at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday. CRAIG LEWIS reports.
There’s reason to believe this could be remembered as one of the games of the Six Nations tournament, despite the fact it’s only week two of the competition. On and on go England, they’ve now won 16 successive Test matches, and again displayed immense composure under pressure.
Last weekend, they had to rely on a late try against France to keep their winning streak alive, and again they stared defeat in the face before finding the means to emerge triumphant despite the odds.
Gone are the days of drab, dire northern hemisphere rugby, with both sides playing with meaningful intent and impressive ball-in-hand ability during end-to-end action that captivated a vociferous crowd in Cardiff.
Very little separated the sides over 80 minutes, but it would be England who emerged triumphant based on a gutsy second-half performance where they saw off the best efforts of an impressive Wales side.
England produced one of the highlights of the first half when Ben Youngs scored after a 25-phase movement to open up an 8-3 lead, but Wales made a statement of intent as they finished the opening stanza with plenty of purpose.
Leigh Halfpenny first reduced the deficit with his second penalty of the game, while a beautiful set move then saw winger Liam Williams run a superb line to score next to the posts just before the break.
That score enabled Wales to take a handy 13-8 lead into half-time, but despite an industrious start to the second half from the hosts, it was England who gradually began to wear them down. Farrell slotted two penalties to one from Halfpenny, which meant Wales held onto a tenuous 16-14 lead heading into the final 10 minutes.
Then came the moment when England once again struck when it mattered most as they pounced on a poor clearance kick and created a movement for Daly to score the match-winning try.
Wales – Try: Liam Williams. Conversion: Leigh Halfpenny. Penalties: Halfpenny (3).
England – Tries: Ben Youngs, Elliot Daly. Conversion: Owen Farrell. Penalties: Farrell (3).
Wales – 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 George North, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Scott Williams, 11 Liam Williams, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Rhys Webb, 8 Ross Moriarty, 7 Justin Tipuric, 6 Sam Warburton, 5 Alun Wyn Jones (c), 4 Jake Ball, 3 Tomas Francis, 2 Ken Owens, 1 Rob Evans.
Subs: 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Samson Lee, 19 Cory Hill, 20 Taulupe Faletau, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Sam Davies, 23 Jamie Roberts.
Photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
