Wales v England: Six Nations 2023 – live
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49 mins. Tomos Williams quick taps a penalty at a scrum and feeds the ball left into his backline, but as the tackle completes Wales can’t resource the clearout (again) and it’s penalty to England (again). Daft decision by the Wales scrum half.
TRY! Wales 10 - 15 England (Kyle Sinckler)44 mins. Owen Williams is penalised for taking an extra roll in a tackle after he charges down a Farrell kick. From the lineout England carry hard through Genge up to the line before Sinckler forces over the line covered in Wales defenders, but Ref Raynal has no problem awarding it through the crowd.
Farrell converts it.
41 mins. England work the ball left slowly and laterally, which allows Rees-Zammit to simply walk into the line grab the ball and sprint under the posts.
Halfpenny converts.
And just like that, Wales are ahead. What a strange game.
Owen Farrell floats the ball into the air to commence the half.
A truly horrible half of rugby punctuated with one decent pattern and move for the Watson try.
Wales’s kicking game is appalling, their defence of Halfpenny receiving kicks is woeful and their attack is mostly two passes out to static runners which the England midfield is devouring with ease. Also, their lack of dynamic clearouts of their own rucks is lamentable.
England have been better, but a long way from good themselves and it’s criminal they are only five points up.
HALF TIME!That’s the end of the half and Wales should take positives from only being five points behind.
40 mins. The ball is back in Wales hands as the clock goes into the red and the possession enters the England 22. Gareth Thomas hits a delightful angle to drive closer to the line, but the ball is too slow again and poor clearing at the ruck lets Ludlam clamp on the ball.
38 mins. Wales put some phases together in the England half, twenty of them in fact, the best moment coming when Rees-Zammit loops off his wing to take the ball through a hole and in behind. He just can’t get away and a few phases later Dombrandt jackals the ball to win a penalty.
34 mins. There’s been a rise-repeat cycle happening here: Wales kicking the ball to Steward for him to claim the ball imperiously to launch another attack that inevitably breaks down, which Wales kick back to Steward….
Repeat ad nauseam to fade…
PENALTY! Wales 3 - 8 England (Owen Farrell)31 mins. Francis is penalised at the scrum for pulling down and having too short a bind. Farrell calls for the tee too extend the lead but misdirects his kick.
27 mins. Tomos Williams takes a quick tap penalty and runs into the England half before the white scramble defence covers. After that there’s a couple of two-passes-out attacks from Wales that are too slow and too flat (and not a very good idea to start with), that England eventually clamp onto at the breakdown to win a penalty.
23 mins. Wales’s gameplan is clearly kick to compete, but they’re not competing very well. Nor are they kicking very well.
PENALTY! Wales 3 - 8 England (Leigh Halfpenny)21 mins. England are offside from the kick-off and Halfpenny gobbles up the opportunity from tee.
TRY! Wales 0 - 8 England (Anthony Watson)18 mins. From a lovely first phase pattern off a lineout, Lawrence takes a pop pass on into the 22. The ball is very quickly recycled and there’s a four on two overlap for Dombrandt to fire a pass to Watson who finishes well in the left corner.
Farrell can’t convert.
16 mins. Having covered the Italy vs Ireland game earlier, I can state without any doubt that both the teams here are the worst of the day by a long chalk.
15 mins. England have a lineout on the Wales 10m line that is won cleanly and worked quickly through hands. The backs are busy with the ball, lots of fast hands and pop passes before Sinckler blocks Tipuric to give Wales a penalty.
12 mins. Another period of kicking eventually results in Wales running the ball left, with Mason Grady getting his first dart with the ball, stepping off his right foot and passing to Adams who hacks it on to nothing.
PENALTY! Wales 0 - 3 England (Owen Farrell)9 mins. Dombrandt takes a good catch after chasing a kick and when the ball is recycled Alun Wyn Jones is penalised for not rolling away. Farrell decides to get some points on the board and duly executes.
7 mins. England are up to nine phases before the Faletau grips the ball for a fair turnover at the breakdown. It looked very much like he was lying on top for me, but the ref disagrees so we play on with a couple of kicks back and forth, neither of which are up to much.
5 mins. The first scrum of the game is a Wales one on halfway, but Ref Raynal blows up and awards a free kick to England for early engagement by the home pack. The visitors have their first attack, with some quick recycling nearly getting Slade away on the left touchline.
2 mins. Some tidy drills from both sides; England with the kick-off exit then Wales with a sensible lineout and kick in return. There’s some excitement as Faletau chases his own chargedown of a Farrell kick, but Steward sorts it.
KICK OFF!The crowd count down and Owen Williams boots the game into life.
It’s flame throwers and Metallica time as the teams enter the smoky cauldron of the stadium.
There’ll be a moment to remember the great, recently departed, Charlie Faulkner before the anthems are sung.
Pre match reading.
What must Wales do today after this week? Rob Kitson considers this here…
I was throwing Wales a small bone of possible victory in my preamble. Am I mad? Feel free to let me know on email or the twitter.
TeamsWarren Gatland took a look at the Scotland game tape and decided it was a “let’s make nine changes” sort of performance.
Louis Rees-Zammit is fit again and back on the wing, with Leigh Halfpenny hoping to finally make it through a warm-up unscathed to start at fullback. George North’s performance was so lacking vs the Scots that he’s out of the squad completely and replaced by Cardiff’s uncapped Mason Grady who will partner Joe Hawkins in a very young centre partnership. Dan Biggar is sent to the bench as the Kiwi coach prefers a half-back pair of Owen Williams and Tomos Williams.
In the forwards, Justin Tipuric and Taulupe Falatau regain their starting places in the back row, plus Alun Wyn Jones and Adam Beard reunite in the locks.
Far fewer changes for England, all injury related. Anthony Watson starts on the wing due to Olly Hassell-Collins picking up a knock and Courtney Lawes’s return from the treatment table puts him on the bench.
Wales: Leigh Halfpenny, Josh Adams, Mason Grady, Joe Hawkins, Louis Rees-Zammit; Owen Williams, Tomos Williams; Gareth Thomas, Ken Owens (captain), Tomas Francis, Adam Beard, Alun Wyn Jones, Christ Tshiunza, Justin Tipuric, Taulupe Faletau
Replacements: Bradley Roberts, Rhys Carre, Dillon Lewis, Dafydd Jenkins, Tommy Reffell, Kieran Hardy, Dan Biggar, Nick Tompkins
England: Freddie Steward; Max Malins, Henry Slade, Ollie Lawrence, Anthony Watson; Owen Farrell (captain), Jack van Poortvliet; Ellis Genge, Jamie George, Kyle Sinckler, Maro Itoje, Ollie Chessum, Lewis Ludlam, Jack Willis, Alex Dombrandt
Replacements: Jack Walker, Mako Vunipola, Dan Cole, Courtney Lawes, Ben Curry, Alex Mitchell, Marcus Smith, Henry Arundell
It’s been the worst week in Welsh rugby since, er, last week. The threat of player industrial action was added to the non-exhaustive list of misogynistic culture, terrible governance and funding rows that have swirled around the WRU for pretty much all of 2023 so far. As late as Wednesday afternoon there were no guarantees the match would go ahead, until some up to the wire negotiations gave the players more of what they reasonably wanted and Warren Gatland could breathe a sigh of relief and name his side. You have to conclude the WRU didn’t pitch all this mess to the Kiwi when they wooed him back just a few months ago, and Gatland’s due diligence processes clearly need some work.
But never mind all that, the game is most definitely on and Cardiff will welcome England in the only way it knows how: disdain.
Steve Borthwick and his team arrive with a mixed bag of results and performances that he is very keen to stress is work in progress, but they do the helpful advantages of a consistent approach in terms of selection and not nearly going on strike following a fortnight long argument with their employers.
The Wales squad do not have such positives, but will be in full siege mentality mode after a mortifying opening two rounds and the rest of the rugby world pointing and smirking at what captain Ken Owens calls a “laughing stock”.
It’s easy to forget that despite being a tournament many of the games in the Six Nations are essentially one-off Test matches, where form is sometimes less important coming in than the intangibles of motivation, anger, and all-consuming will to stick it an old enemy. Wales have 1993, 2012, 2013 and 2019 to point to as examples of winning when it wasn’t really fancied, with many of those encounters against England teams better placed that this one.
However, the drawback today is those previous Wales sides were nowhere near this level of shambles, either.
