The Chariot Limps Home

The Six Nations Championship moved on to “le crunch” for Wales as the French would have it. A trip to HQ at Twickenham is never easy but with the rain coming down it was going to be doubly difficult for Wales to derail the English chariot.

I took my place on the couch and was soon squirming as England’s kicking game combined with some ferocious forward drives made it look like they were going to dispatch the Welsh quite comfortably. How we missed Halfpenny’s defensive nous as a brilliant kick from Farrell found acres of space and allowed May to cross virtually unopposed. I had turned the sound down and was heading behind the couch as May scored his second after a powerful set of phases from the English pack. It was 12-0 and, even though I am not a lip reader, I could tell that “Swing Low” was blaring out. Oh dear, oh dear. To make matters worse Wales were making Mike Brown look a world beater with their ineffective kicking.

It had to get better for Wales and it did. A few kickable (for a Halfpenny) penalty chances went begging and then Wales seemed to have scored a try when Anscombe won the race to touch down a loose ball over the English line. Sadly the TMO was the only person who thought it wasn’t a try and his was the opinion that counted – bah! Wales did however gather three points from the original penalty. Wales kept England out for the rest of the half and at 12-3 were still in touch at the interval.

Wales did play much better in the second half and as they exerted pressure England began to look more and more fallible. Wales did everything they could to close the gap. Scott Williams was stopped in the act of scoring by a brilliant tackle by Underhill and the support did not quite arrive in time to turn Shingler’s stunning break into a try. As it turned out, the only points scored in the second half were from an Anscombe penalty which made the final score 12-6 to England. Sadly for the Welsh there had been no Wembley moment. The combined English sigh of relief could be heard in Pontypool.

I thought the Welsh pack went very well looking comfortable in the set piece and even managing to snaffle the ball in an English lineout or two. The English forwards did look powerful in their driving play but the Welsh defended stoutly. A couple of dropped balls apart, the Welsh pack carried strongly particularly in the second half as the English began to wilt. The Welsh half backs were put under a lot of pressure and found it tough going especially in the first half. Maybe those nasty comments from Uncle Eddie did have an effect. When Anscombe moved to outside half things improved and he had his most influential spell for Wales. In the backs, defences were on top with few opportunities created by either side as the conditions were far from ideal for attacking rugby. Farrell looked the class act on the field with his tactical awareness shining out in the gloom. Wales did look vulnerable under the high ball and missed the expertise of Halfpenny, Liam Williams and Biggar in this crucial area. They can expect many more high balls from Murray and Sexton in Dublin in a couple of weeks’ time.

If this had been a Champions Cup match, Wales would have been delighted to come away from Twickenham with a losing bonus point. They would have felt that they would be able to catch up in the corresponding home fixture. It is, however, one of the quirks of the Six Nations that the teams only play once and the split of home and away fixtures often determines the champions. Perhaps they should tot up the points after two seasons.

The Irish were far too strong for the Italians in Dublin and looked far more like their formidable selves than they had in Paris last weekend. Wales can expect another torrid encounter when they cross the Irish Sea.

Sadly Pontypool’s friendly against Maesteg Celtic had to be called off yesterday due to the weather but hopefully they will be in action next weekend when they are due to visit Beddau. This has always proved to be a tough fixture and Pooler will have to be on their mettle.

Hard luck Wales and come on Pooler!