England vs Wales - minute-by-minute

[Puja]

To give context, I was away this weekend, and so my first watching of the game involved watching the first 50 minutes on the world's shittiest hotel television, while I was supposed to be getting ready for something else, and the last 40 minutes at 1am in the morning on my laptop after getting back. So this is almost going to be a first watch for me in some ways, especially since everyone on here appears ready to riot over this terrible performance that you all saw, whereas I... well, it wasn't perfect, but I could definitely see both signs of progress and signs of where we were progressing too. So I'm intrigued to know what the actual match was like.

Minute 1: Ford kicks long down the centre and Slade puts in a textbook low tackle on bring Winnett to ground early. George has an opportunity to ruck a rather lacklustre Tompkins off, but doesn't make a great job of it and gets pulled down on the wrong side, ending hope of competition. Wales recycle with a forward drive and it's Slade making the second of England's two tackles this match. Good workrate.

Wales kick long to Steward - it's been a tactic of theirs to avoid kicking to touch, as Sneaky Brainbox is notorious for loving running attacking moves off a lineout and Gatland's been on record that it's a strategy to deprive us of set piece possession. Besides, Steward will just kick back or run into contact to set up a safe possession, right? Nope - I wake up the person I was sharing my hotel room with as Steward runs sideways to outpace the focussed chase and then picks a line through where it's weak to make a 30m break and leave him one-on one with the Welsh 9 in the backfield. If he chips and chases, there's no other defenders and Williams is flatfooted, so he's a not appalling bounce away from a great solo try in the first minute. Unfortunately, his first instinct is to look to round Williams on the outside and then he changes his mind and tries to step on the inside and ends up losing his footing and stumbling to the floor. It's still quick ball though (mostly due to a sterling support and clearing job by Earl), but we go the wrong way/Wales realign very well, and they've got the defensive line in place when we go wide. Underhill carries well to bring the momentum back, as does Itoje, and two quick rucks and Ford carrying the ball to the line have left Wales scrambling to cover a 4-on-3.

Minute 2: Dingwall commits the first man and passes, but Daly cuts back inside rather than attacking an outside shoulder and looking for the offload. His life would've been made an awful lot easier if the outside men hadn't been standing so flat though. The quick ball presentation in the tackle works against us this time, as Daly loses control and the ball bobbles out of the back of the ruck. Earl and Mitchell rescue it, but it's slow ball and the attempt at resuscitating it is even slower, so Ford goes cross-field and it's a very good bit of cover by Dyer to stop Slade from getting the opening try. He tries to claim he marked it, but misses the fact that you have to land in the field of play to claim a mark and the ref gives us a 5m lineout.

Minute 3: George throws to Chessum in the middle and we attempt a sneaky back-peel move that needs more time on the training paddock because it's woefully telegraphed - Reffell does an excellent job in not only spotting that Itoje is popping the ball out the back to the arcing Roots, but that he is unbound and so he can come up, and Roots is hit first when he's still running sideways. He bounces out of the tackle to his credit and makes a few metres in contact, but Reffell has recovered and goes in to try and hold him up. Roots gets his knee to the ground, the ref calls "Tackle, release", Reffell rips the ball, Itoje dives on it mid-ruck and Reffell then competes for it - the ref, apparently missing the penalty offence by Reffell and the penalty offence by Itoje, gives a secret third option of "Tackled player holding onto the ball", which doesn't fit with the facts. Gosh, I hope I won't be saying that again about this referee...

In hindsight, we absolutely should've just driven that lineout.

Minute 4: Wales throw to the back of the lineout and look to run a little move, but England are up so fast in defence that they're caught way behind the gainline. They go again and the ref gives the harshest offside penalty you've ever seen against Itoje. Wales try a little chip over the top with the advantage, but Chessum does a good job of sweeping and we're back to the pen.

Minute 5: Wales kick to just within England's half and again gain good lineout ball which they run into midfield - Dingwall putting in a good tackle which stops them dead. Wales run another few phases and go steadily backwards - Dingwall putting in a big hit of Jenkins which puts them 15m back, four phases after the lineout - so Wales drop back and put the ball in the air.

Freeman gathers it on the touchline, draws the defender and offloads to Ford, who shows quick hands to basketball pass to send Mitchell away down the wing for our second clean break of the first 5 minutes. He does chip and chase, but it's too far infield and Lloyd sweeps up...

[Puja]

Minute 6: ...only to get crunched by Mitchell chasing his own kick. Wales recover the ball, but Williams is slow getting it cleanly away and England are up fast and creating more havoc in defence. We have a moment of looking like we've not numbered up right on the blindside and Williams thinks about it, but this week there's good communication and we fill across quickly to close the door, so he settles for the caterpillar and kick routine.

It's a terrible kick though - landing on Steward's head pretty much centre-field with room to run and Wales double-down on their mistakes by doubling up to stop Steward and leaving a whocking great hole for him to send Daly through. They scramble to cut him off, but Daly grubbers through and is unlucky in the last bounce - a normal bounce would've forced Adams to run it out, a weirder bounce would've ended up in Slade's hands for the try, but the bounce we got bisects the two and goes out for a lineout.

Minute 7: Wales win the lineout at the front and... probably knock it on in the maul if you're being forensic, but I can't blame the ref for not seeing it. Wales set up a ruck and then box-kick away for touch - guess the clever strategy is shelved for the time being.

We take good ball in the middle and it is a clever set play - Earl breaking from the back as the maul is formed and attacking the gap between the forwards and backs with two options on his shoulder. Sadly, he picks the wrong one - Underhill walks through untouched, but the ball is behind him to Daly who gets tackled by the person who should've been watching Underhill. Either Wales have seen this move before and had supreme confidence where it was going, or they just got extraordinarily lucky.

Daly does make ground though and it's followed by another good carry from Roots to give us more good and speedy possession. Mitchell decides to give it the big dummy and dart from the ruck...

Minute 8: ...really iffy decision. Absolutely no-one buys the dummy and the space just wasn't there. He then compounds it by hurling the ball 15 metres vaguely in Slade's direction, rather than taking the tackle and recycling. Slade does a beautiful job to regather, turn, run at the space between two defenders to draw them in and offload to Earl who will have a 3-on-1 with the full-back... only to completely fuck up the pass, putting it in front of Earl, but behind (and below) Daly outside him. Daly does a phenomenal job of regathering and cutting back inside, but that's the third or fourth half-chance we've not converted for varying reasons and we need to be better.

Having said that, I'm still excited that we're actually trying things rather than just rolling around the corner interminably. We're a couple of passes sticking off tearing Wales apart right now.

We try and recover our speed, but Reffell gets on the wrong side of the next ruck - a less understanding ref would've given a penalty there, but the ref's probably right that he's being pinned - and so Ford grubbers into the corner.

We give Wales the front lineout ball again, but this time it's a trap - Itoje is on the "age and skulduggery" side of the equation for once and gives Dafydd Jenkins a free lesson in attacking a lineout maul. Stuart also needs to be mentioned in dispatches for getting himself (legally) around the wrong side and interrupting the support for Jenkins, and the whole thing collapses to the floor for an England 5m scrum.

Minute 9: We spend the minute failing to scrum. Won't be the last time I type that sentence this game. It's an ugly precedent for the referee - allowing people to tie shoelaces and sort out their shorts without stopping the clock, so the scrum doesn't event begin the sequence by the time the minute ticks over.

Minute 10: ... when I said "won't be the last time", I actually wasn't aware that it would literally be the next minute. The referee leaves a full four seconds between "Crouch, bind, set", which doesn't help, but his management of the downtime is appalling as well. The scrum collapses at 09.16, the referee finishes his conversation with our tight and their loose at 09.34, the two scrums finally finish binding up at 09.56, and "Crouch" is called at 09.59.

This is not to mention the fact that Thomas has clearly folded in and has no intention of scrummaging whatsoever, so we could have had a penalty at 09.16 rather than him failing to make a decision. Still, we go again. What an advertisement for rugby.

[Puja]

Minute 11: The ref is taking even longer over his calling, but the ball finally goes in and to the back. It very much appears that Wales bring it down, but the ref takes pity on the fans and orders England to bring it out. I'd've preferred the advantage, but hey-ho.

As it is, we run a fun move, with Earl popping to a looping Mitchell, who has Daly, Dingwall, and Slade all running hard, straight, flat lines, in absolute parallel to each other, and Ford dropping back underneath with Steward and Freeman out wide. Mitchell, unfortunately, picks the wrong option and hits Slade, who has been absolutely lined up by Tompkins and knocks it on in the tackle. The correct pick was Ford - Wales had a very tight defence that had all eyes on the three runners and there were acres for Steward to walk in on if the ball had gone out the back. It's easy for me to pick with replays and slow-motion, but that's decision-making I want a top scrum-half being able to make and it compounds a poor start to the game from Mitchell.

Wales gather the loose ball and it looks dangerous, but Steward does a decent job of showing Dyer the outside and then hauling him down - we give up 20 metres, but there's no uncontrolled break and Wales start to set up for the clearance. The ruck is outside the 22, so they pass back into the 22 for Assirati to make a little sacrifice run to set up the ruck inside the safety line. Underhill goes in like an exocet, with beautiful tackle technique to bring him down and Chessum... goes high.

Watched live and at full speed, there's barely any force - the majority of Chessum's impact goes through the body - and anyone claiming it's a red (as I have seen from a melodramatic Welshman or two) needs to give their head a wobble. There's a better argument that it's not a card at all, considering it was considered low danger by the TMO and the tackle situation is affected by Underhill's tackle.

What it is, however, is thoroughly unnecessary. Commentators say, "Well, what is he meant to do in that situation; how can he get lower when there's already a low tackler there - is he meant to just not tackle him?"

YES. ABSOLUTELY. THAT'S THE POINT. Chessum should not be trying to make that tackle. Assirati is not intending to go anywhere and, even if he was, Underhill has just cut him in half. There is no opportunity to turn over the ball, no offload to prevent, nothing to be gained except the risk of being unlucky and getting a card. Why is he making that decision?

Anyway, the ref hasn't seen it yet, so we play on and Wales have been dummying setting up for the clearance to try and catch England unawares with a cross-field. It's lovely, but Slade covers with ease and Adams knocks on, very nearly dropping into Daly's hands for an unopposed run-in. That would've added a lovely extra bonus to the Chessum yellow had that happened.

Minute 12: As it is, it bobbles away and Daly throws a wild pass away from touch that could've gone into a Welsh hand (he may know we have the advantage, although I wouldn't trust it myself) and we end up with a mess. England regather and reset - Slade attempts a kick through that's blocked into touch and we get an attacking lineout.

This is the longest minute in the match. The clock is stopped for injury and water break, and I start a stop-watch to see what happens:
0.00 Game clock stopped for doctor to look at Assirati's ribs after Underhill's tackle. Note - there is no injury to Assirati's head, nor is he particularly playing it up.
1.17 We are set up for the lineout and the TMO comes in and says there's a high tackle to look at.
2.02 "Bear with us James, just getting the angles." "Take your time."
2.53 The touch judge tries to bail out, saying to the referee that there's still no replay available, it's a penalty only, just inside the 22... oh wait, here it is.
4.03 The yellow card is finally brandished
4.38 The game is restarted (5m further forward than the offence was, but frankly no-one wants the ref to check the position with the TMO) and Wales kick down to halfway. Everyone in the stadium is thrilled that such a marginal yellow was double-checked.

Minute 13: Wales win the lineout in the middle and set up a very effective maul. We defend it well enough, but it's good ground for Wales and they have clean ball to play with. Lloyd goes for another cross-field kick, but England have clearly been practising and Steward has Adams well covered even if the ball hadn't bounced into touch.

Reffell has lost his boot and the referee once again shows terrible control of the game by stopping play until he's very carefully laced it up and got back into postion. England don't mind in the slightest, as it's our yellow card that's been running down, but in six and a half minutes of real-world time, the "action" is one lineout maul, one pass and one kick. The TMO technical issue wasn't his fault, but he does have a duty to make the game go.

Minute 14: England throw to the back and look to set a maul, but there is some cock-up in the ball transfer as we set up and it's a knock-on.

The TMO has required just two minutes of his allotted eight to decide that Chessum is just getting a yellow.

Minute 15: We spend the minute failing to scrum. It has now been 8 real-world minutes since the last pass was made.

[Puja]

Minute 16: The referee gives an absolute comedy hour penalty to Wales at the scrum. They go forward a bit and then literally are sidestepping as they wheel the scrum to try and get an openside. England stand up and Wales continue to swing around on their own. The penalty is given for England "not driving straight." Wild.

Anyway, Mitchell boots the ball away and our defence swarms to kill the advantage, so it's back for the pen and Wales tuck it into the corner. It's a belting kick from Lloyd - it'd be 2m out if they were allowed it - and real pressure on England.

Minute 17: We are not getting the rub of the green from the referee today, as this is another risible decision. Wales throw long to a pod standing over the 15m line and we've clearly done our homework, because there's no less than three England players who have come around to relieve Wainwright of the ball - he actually goes as far as to almost transfer the ball back to Itoje before realising that he's not on his team and trying to pull it back. That just means that it comes back within reach of Roots though and Itoje's not letting go - Earl is actually swimming through from the Welsh side to get hands on the ball and, at the point of the collapse, there are three times as many England hands on the ball as there are Welsh - to say that a try would likely have been scored from that position is ridiculous.

Having said that, it is a definite penalty because Roots is a colossal idiot. Whether he doesn't know the laws or whether he's panicked because of the speed with which the maul is moving, I don't know, but he clearly and obviously pulls it down and it's such a waste of brilliant defensive work.

I'm a little disappointed in George's captaincy here - he says nothing to the referee as the explanation is given and there is thus no impetus to go to the TMO. I'm not asking for Farrell's rude and aggressive hectoring of the referee back again, but a captain like Warburton would've stood a chance of influencing the ref to have a second look at that.

Minute 18: England kick off deep and Wales have done their homework in making sure Freeman is blocked on his way to the ball. He makes it through in time to put in the tackle though. Wales have the ball, but they get a bit cocky having 15v13 and try to play wide inside their 22. The rush defence is excellent and well organised - Dingwall takes Tompkins well as he catches it and, while he does manage an offload (marginally laterally) to North, Slade arrives at the same time as the ball and Wales are tackled back behind their forward pack. Underhill goes jackalling and is just about held back, but Williams has to step in to wrest it free and then the ball is out and Itoje is going to hurt someone. Williams decides better to make it someone else's problem and passes back to his fly-half, who I cannot stress enough how much he does not want this ball. He is actually gesticulating "Pass it to Assirati" as Williams makes the pass to him. England's defence is up on the outside, cutting off any hope of a pass, and his only hope is in trying to step inside, beat Itoje for pace and hope not to get too brutalised by the close defence.

Unfortunately for him, he gets as far as the "step inside" part of the plan before Itoje is on him and hauling him back towards his own line. He may have knocked it on on the floor, if I was Welsh I'd be questioning whether England stayed on their feet, as an Englishmen I'd've questioned whether Reffell came in through the gate to take down Itoje (penalty try ref? ), but the ref gives it as England scrum for going forwards and there've been worse decisions.

Minute 19: The scrum is just about set within the minute, but the referee has only got to "Bind" before the time ticks over. Poor, poor control of the game.

Underhill for lock has got to be the new board meme though. 100% scrum success rate.

Minute 20: This is just unadulterated technique. For those saying, "Earl's not a real 8" (despite him playing there, a lot), this is the proof otherwise and it's nothing to do with the impressive carry. He's bound specifically for a quick pick-up from channel one ball (a quick strike down the centre, to the 8's feet), with one arm down waiting for the ball, but the actual strike goes down channel two (a strike where the ball arrives between loosehead lock and left flanker). This is a recipe for a cock-up, cause we don't actually have a flanker on the left side, but Earl has his foot ready to collect it (clearly prepared for the plan of "the ball is coming back however George can strike it quickest, so be ready for it going anywhere), controls it like Messi and picks and goes within half a second. It is beautiful, beautiful technique and shows that, as I always say, you cannot just put any back row at eight - it is a specialist position, and that, despite what some always say, Earl is a specialist 8.

Oh yeah, and he does a nice enough little carry after all that technical stuff as well. Quick enough to outpace Williams's tackle, strong enough to drive through Mann's tackle, resilient enough to shake off Ioan Lloyd putting a fairly solid shoulder into his face that the TMO didn't deem worthy of coming back for, and with enough control to manouevre the ball around Winnett's late attempt to knock it free and reach out to ground it over the line. Very nice indeed.

Out of the first 20 minutes, we have been either camped in the Welsh 22 or on the attack and in control for 14 of them. Wales's only active moments in the game so far have been one decent maul and two cross-field kicks that were comfortably dealt with (and one good drive from the failed lineout that caused Roots to panic and give away the penalty try). So far, so good.

I shall come back to the next controversy tomorrow, I believe. Night all.

Puja

[Mr Mwenda]

Thanks, Puja. Appreciated as ever. This reflects my impression of that period at the time.

It is frustrating that England just seem to be just off clicking. That feels like it has been the story for a while actually.

[16th man]

Absolutely could not believe the minute 16 scrum decision.
Not sure they could have made it more obvious between the swinging out of the looseheads hips and the 8 aiming for the far corner flag.

Refs could make their lives much easier if they got easy stuff like that right.

[Mellsblue]

Absolutely could not believe the minute 16 scrum decision.
Not sure they could have made it more obvious between the swinging out of the looseheads hips and the 8 aiming for the far corner flag.

Refs could make their lives much easier if they got easy stuff like that right.

I think scrums would actually be a good use of the tmo. They could watch the overhead angle in real time and feedback to the ref. My only reservation is that mission creep would mean we’d get called back after a minute of play - after two mins of getting the scrum completed - when the tmo realises on the tenth rewatch that the tighthead prop has his little finger binding on the arm.

[Banquo]

Great work...especially picking up the little bits of action that go unnoticed normally. What people call unseen I believe

[16th man]

Absolutely could not believe the minute 16 scrum decision.
Not sure they could have made it more obvious between the swinging out of the looseheads hips and the 8 aiming for the far corner flag.

Refs could make their lives much easier if they got easy stuff like that right.

I think scrums would actually be a good use of the tmo. They could watch the overhead angle in real time and feedback to the ref. My only reservation is that mission creep would mean we’d get called back after a minute of play - after two mins of getting the scrum completed - when the tmo realises on the tenth rewatch that the tighthead prop has his little finger binding on the arm.

Given that the Touchjudge should be watching that side, just confirming driving straight would be a fairly easy limitation to mission creep. Theoretically.

[loudnconfident]

Thx again! Wrt Earl's try, it seemed a very soft score for Wales to give away. (Not that I'm complaining! ) Wapes had a 2-man advantage, 14 points up - and let us right back in.

[Which Tyler]

Thank you again, for doing these - always interesting, and almost always more interesting than re-watching the match myself

[16th man]

Thx again! Wrt Earl's try, it seemed a very soft score for Wales to give away. (Not that I'm complaining! ) Wapes had a 2-man advantage, 14 points up - and let us right back in.

Given he had to take a step onto the other side to gather and go back on the outside, the backrower, 8 and centre defending on that side have some big questions to answer. Just about let the 10 off as you'd expect a decent international 8 to go through them.

I was initially just happy we'd got the scrum down their end to kill some time on the yellows and had us not giving up a scrum penalty as the absolute best outcome. A try was just a ridiculous bonus in that situation

[Puja]

Thx again! Wrt Earl's try, it seemed a very soft score for Wales to give away. (Not that I'm complaining! ) Wapes had a 2-man advantage, 14 points up - and let us right back in.

Given he had to take a step onto the other side to gather and go back on the outside, the backrower, 8 and centre defending on that side have some big questions to answer. Just about let the 10 off as you'd expect a decent international 8 to go through them.

I was initially just happy we'd got the scrum down their end to kill some time on the yellows and had us not giving up a scrum penalty as the absolute best outcome. A try was just a ridiculous bonus in that situation

I wouldn't've said soft or questions-to-answer, per se - it was an excellent try scored through individual skill. Despite the wails of the Welsh, he wasn't let through or given soft tackles - he was dextrous enough to have the ball in his hands before most would expect it even to have been hooked, he outpaced Mann off the base and stopped him from making any kind of dominant tackle, and showed a lot of strength, both in legs to power through, and upper body to fend off the attempts to rip the ball.

Puja

[16th man]

Thx again! Wrt Earl's try, it seemed a very soft score for Wales to give away. (Not that I'm complaining! ) Wapes had a 2-man advantage, 14 points up - and let us right back in.

Given he had to take a step onto the other side to gather and go back on the outside, the backrower, 8 and centre defending on that side have some big questions to answer. Just about let the 10 off as you'd expect a decent international 8 to go through them.

I was initially just happy we'd got the scrum down their end to kill some time on the yellows and had us not giving up a scrum penalty as the absolute best outcome. A try was just a ridiculous bonus in that situation

I wouldn't've said soft or questions-to-answer, per se - it was an excellent try scored through individual skill. Despite the wails of the Welsh, he wasn't let through or given soft tackles - he was dextrous enough to have the ball in his hands before most would expect it even to have been hooked, he outpaced Mann off the base and stopped him from making any kind of dominant tackle, and showed a lot of strength, both in legs to power through, and upper body to fend off the attempts to rip the ball.

Puja

Not taking any credit away from Earls, but if the situation had been reversed I suspect we'd have been calling for heads to roll if we'd coughed up a try in that situation.

[FKAS]

Alex Mann is a mobile flanker but he looks a bit lightweight and Earl runs through his attempted tackle far to easily. Wainwright is then always going to struggle with the momentum Earl has. I agree the centre and 10 should do a lot better, the 10 is within an inch or so of making head contact though considering the ref seemed to actively dislike England for much of the first half until the Welsh props inability to scrum properly got on his nerves it probably wouldn't have mattered.

[Puja]

Minute 21: Tough call this one and an absolute 50:50 in my books. On the one hand, I cannot blame Wales for charging - the sidestep is often the first movement in a run-up and you do have to look for the trigger movement so that your charge is as perfect as possible - reacting on the swing of an arm, the little bend of a knee, the twitch of a head that comes before the first step. They are entirely within their right to go. However, Ford clearly doesn't even make a move to step forward so, while it looks like a trigger movement, it's obviously not.

Personally, I would've said that the correct decision was to stop the clock (so as not to run the yellow cards down any further), not penalise anybody, but reset the whole thing and give Ford his last 10 seconds to kick and allow Wales to charge again. I am English though, so I am biased and I can understand calling both ways. I'm just glad that the game wasn't settled by it.

I will note that I do lose some sympathy for Ford by him fucking about to try and wind the clock down by the maximum amount (and wouldn't've put it past him to have actually done it deliberately to dummy the Welsh charge and claim additional time by having them sent back). We needed those 2 points much more than we needed an additional 10 seconds taken off the sin-bin. Very much a play-stupid-games-win-stupid-prizes situation.

The referee switches time off for the arguments, so we get a kick-off in the minute. Wales kick it long and down the throat of Freddie Steward, which seems like a bit of a waste of time, but there we are.

Minute 22: England caterpillar and box-kick away, but Wales form a solid enough phalanx to stop Freeman from too much competition and Winnett does a very good job collecting. Dingwall gets pinged for what again looks to be an awfully sharp offside penalty, although camera angles don't allow me to be as certain about being annoyed on this as I was with the Itoje one. Wales try to spread the advantage wide, but the rush defence is working very well today and Wales are caught 20m back from where the penalty was. They try a little chip over the top with the last throes of advantage and the ball does find grass, but Daly palms it back to Steward who steps one man and is through to glory... but then we come back for the penalty.

Steward's had another good game so far and has been dangerous in attack. I am currently willing to eat my pre-tournament words that we should have picked Furbank.

Minute 23: Ioan Lloyd puts in another belter of a kick to put Wales just 12m out from our line, but we are back up to 14 as Chessum comes back from the bin.

Wales throw long to the tail and do a decent job of looking like they're going to drive, then popping the ball out as the lineout jumper's on his way down and Itoje has already started moving towards disrupting the maul. They put it into midfield for Tompkins to run at/over Ford, but this time when Ford does his targetting the ball, he's got an assistant in Freeman going low and the two of them march Tompkins backwards, resulting in a forward pass as he attempts a panicked offload.

Minute 24: Chessum goes down with a head knock tackling Dyer after the forward pass, and it's a very short cameo after his yellow card as he is hauled off for an HIA.

Best scrum of the game this one. The ref doesn't restart the clock until everyone's bound, he then makes the calls at a reasonable cadence, both front rows play sensibly and the ball is played away by Earl for Mitchell to clear. All within the minute - it is possible to do!

Mitchell's kick is either an odd tactical decision or a cock-up - I'd've expected him to be looking to hit touch from a kick off a scrum in our 22, but it's long and down the throat of Winnett who can run it back against a defensive line lacking in numbers as the scrum takes time to unbind. The chase isn't great either - Steward and Mitchell don't communicate well enough and both target Winnett, leaving space for Dyer down the left. Thankfully Steward has the angle to close him down and forces the kick, which bounces into touch inside our 22.

Minute 25: We spend a lot of time fannying about at this lineout and the referee should not be letting us get away with in - it's arrant timewasting to run down the yellow. It doesn't help especially - we try a sneaky little short lineout of Underhill running around the front, but it's both not straight and a knock-on and there's not really space there, so he was just tackled immediately even if it hadn't been for the two offences. Another one that needs to go back to the drawing board.

[Puja]

Minute 26: Wales are fuming as they give away an incredibly cheap free-kick at the scrum - the second rows shove before the engage and they overbalance. Assirati is giving them a piece of his mind as they run back. Marler's probably a bit lucky not to give away a reversed penalty for giving him a shove, right in front of the ref - there've been officials who absolutely would not've tolerated that.

Minute 27: Slade does a great job with the free-kick and it's a Wales lineout back inside their half. They go off the top and into midfield to try and run at Ford again, but once again he's got a partner and they are tackled behind the gainline. Lloyd then goes aerial and Steward comes in from distance to claim it.

Itoje carries up with Marler and Stuart as his support crew - looks like a setup for a caterpillar, but Marler does a shocking job of rucking and just goes past the ball, leaving it exposed at the back. Reffell is very much on the ball, walking around and picking it up, but thankfully for England, Coles and George also react quickly and have sprinted in from their place in the next pod to pick him up and dump him at the back of a ruck, leaving a mess, but also setting an offside line so Wales can't compete.

Minute 28: England manage to make a caterpillar out of the mess and Mitchell box-kicks high - it's a touch too long and Wales have no less than 6 players forming a phalanx to protect Winnett, but Coles ends up tackling him well. They kick it back and this one is not gathered by Steward - hard to see if it's Adams getting a hand in or just a mistake - but the ball bobbles loose and Wales go wide. We're undernumbered here and Dingwall charges up to try and stop it, but one of the Welsh forwards throws a glorious miss-pass over his head and Wales have a 3-on-1. Slade charges up on North and forces an average pass out of him that makes Winnett stop to recover, and then Dingwall pressures Winnett and he decides it's best to kick. I think Dyer outside him probably had a different opinion, but we've got away with another failure of the defensive system there.

Minute 29: Freeman goes back to field the long kick from Winnett, thinks about running, then passes inside to Ford. Unfortunately, the pass is telegraphed and Ford does well to get the kick away before acquiring the complementary Rio Dyer that came with the ball. It's a good kick, all things considered, at least getting outside our 22, but I wish Freeman had run - there was space there. Roots returns and we're back up to 15 again.

Wales throw a lineout that the TV director is too good to bother showing us and look to attack the edge between the lineout and the backs, only to be absolutely scythed down by Underhill. Quick ball for Wales and they go once more open, drawing in more tacklers and leaving Slade calling for numbers to fold around. Unfortunately *everyone* pays attention to him and doesn't look up - there might only be one player on the blindside, but he's standing wider than any England defender, so a fast flat pass puts Reffell through a gaping hole. Mitchell and Underhill do well to recover and bring him down, but it's quick Welsh ball in the 22.

We do enough during the next two phases to slow it down with dubiously legal work at the breakdown, and Wales continue one-out runners till the end of the minute.

Minute 30: Coles puts in a dominant tackle to knock Wales back, and then Marler is a menace in the next ruck after to slow the ball even further. A few more phases and Wales are now outside of the 22 and actively retreating - there's been a ruck or two where I'd be grumpy if I were Welsh, but it's been on the right side of the referee and it's giving the platform for our blitz. Phase 14 comes to nothing as the minute ends.

[Puja]

Minute 31: Wales make a metre or two, but England are solidly defending their 22m line. Even when they look to go wide, a winger or a centre is up and blocking the pass, forcing the Welsh backs to cut back inside to where the nasty burly men are waiting. Our discipline is outstanding - everyone is getting back onside and numbering up, attempted jackals are aborted if there's someone who can't roll away, we're listening to the ref. This is strange and confusing and I don't know what to do with it.

Minute 32: Phase 23 and Slade puts in a big tackle on Jenkins, resulting in Itoje being unlucky not to get a jackal penalty. Finally Wales mess it up on Phase 25 - Williams does a sideways run from the base which does nothing except give England more time to press with, Tompkins wants to go wide, but Dingwall is in his passing lane, so he cuts back inside to be tackled by Marler. He's on his own and England are looming, so he pops the pass off the floor, only for Coles to have read it and get a hand in to slap it backwards to our side. I'm going to take a moment to appreciate Coles here, because he's put a terrific shift in across his 8 minutes of action so far - lots of tackling and energy, been part of some solid scrums and then this intervention. It's a shame that he'll probably lose his place in the XXIII to Martin, but it's nice to have four good locks again.

We get it back and Daly leathers the ball upfield - it hits grass just outside the Welsh 22 and gets a decent bounce that takes it right the way up to the Welsh line before Adams recovers. He does an excellent job with his kick though, making touch on the halfway line, where a ballboy makes friends with George Ford by standing up to catch the ball instead of letting Ford catch and go for a quick lineout. The ballboy is mortified and Ford does a very good job of appearing composed and gracious. Can't imagine our last 10 would've been quite so sanguine in a similar situation.

Minute 33: View of the crowd. View of the sunset. View of the stadium. I cannot tell whether that is an artsy transition effect being employed by the director or if the cameras have broken and pixellated, but either way, it's not showing us the rugby that we're actually here for. As we return to the match already in progress, England have the ball in the backs after the lineout and run a fine move with Dingwall taking the ball right to the line before passing. Unfortunately, he picks the wrong option - out of the back would've seen us free, whereas the flat pop is intercepted by some great work from Tompkins. The ball goes loose and Underhill spills trying to do a one-hand pickup of the bobbling ball.

On the slow-mo replay, Earl was actually completely through the gap from that pass from Dingwall and it's only insane reactions from Tompkins that stops a linebreak. Possibly owe Dingers an apology there.

Minute 34: We have another competent scrum, which Wales play away from to let North run at Dingwall and it's not great for the youngster, who is in position to make a good tackle, but doesn't go forward into it and ends up getting trampled, Lomu-style. North makes a good break and Wales can play with quick ball, but they don't do much with it and the breakdown after is underresourced, allowing Itoje to step through and wait for TWilliams to pick up before snagging his arm. The ball bobbles out and England are up quickly, leading to Lloyd throwing an absolute hospital pass - high, loopy, behind the runner, and arriving about a milisecond before Underhill. Gareth Thomas loses the ball and the structural integrity of his ribcage, and Stuart does well to gather it in - he's done a bunch of that today. Quick, turnover ball, but Slade absolutely slices a kick and gets very lucky that it bounces just infield and the chase forces Lloyd to take it into touch for an England lineout.

Minute 35: Chessum back on the pitch. England throw to the middle and Itoje does very well to gather it under a lot of pressure. The maul is foiled though, so we set up a caterpillar and Mitchell goes for the high kick - it's too long again and Dyer calls the mark with ease.

[Puja]

Minute 36: Dyer kicks back and it's pretty much exactly the same lineout position as a minute ago. Once again, England go to Itoje without any movement and again it's contested, only this time Wales do wrest it back on their side. Poor lineout calling there.

Wales go for their own high ball, but Freeman doesn't even need to jump to take it comfortably just inside our half.

Minute 37: Beard goes off his feet and onto his hands past the ball when competing after Freeman's tackled, but he's allowed to do it and it causes the ball to squirt loose. Someone grumpy might note that, even if it's legal, that's a knock on, but we're not grumpy here, so I'll carry on with saying that Reffell does a great job getting first to the ball. Wales go steadily backwards with their attack after that, pushed back 10 metres before deciding to slow down and kick long. It looks like it might find grass, but Steward is sweeping well and puts in another belting kick. Wales return it with an up and under, which I'm going to assume Mitchell calls for, cause no-one else in the vicinity goes towards it, but Mitchell is a hell of a distance out and does not get to the ball. He throws a boot at it as it lands and is either skilled or lucky enough to get a decent contact. It lands with Adams who makes a nice mazy run before being brought down.

Minute 38: Wales spread it wide for Freeman and Steward to demonstrate the epitome of confusion over defensive system. It's 3-on-2, when traditional rugby logic says you should drift, but where FJones appears to say blitz. Freeman, however, treads water, which confuses Steward who has already started moving towards charging up. He then attempts to backpedal and synch with what Freeman's doing, but Freeman isn't drifting as hard as Steward thought/Steward's in no man's land, and so there's a gap for Reffell to run through. The tackle is made by a covering Stuart (who's having a quietly impressive game!), but we're on the back foot again. Wales go blind to reset and we've got our numbering wrong again - Daly and Freeman are both trying to man the 5m blindside, while on the open we haven't pressed in enough and Stuart's covering three men's space at the side of the ruck. He does a great job to take down a burst from Reffell, but that leaves an acre of space when the offload comes. Williams is in support and puts Mann in for the try.

Minute 39: Wales secure the easy conversion and it's 5-14.

Minute 40: Wainright takes a superb catch from the kickoff. Wales reset and the ref shows a good bit of feeling in saying that Wales have deliberately trapped Stuart in - he's right, but I've seen those given as penalties. He gave the same call earlier when England pinned a Welshman in and screamed about him not rolling away, so marks for consistency as well.

Wales set the caterpillar, but Chessum does a great job to get a solid charge-down - both hands to the ball and he's so unlucky that it bounces right into the hands of a Welsh player as that deserved more. Wales make a safe carry to run down time and then kick it out as the clock strikes 40.00.

[Puja]

A very good half from England and it's baffling that it's 5-14. A little bit more rub of the green/some more cohesion in attack and we'd be 20 points up. Significant improvement from the Italy game on both sides of the ball. Will look at the second half another day.

Puja

[Danno]

I'm saving this for the weekend, so just stopping in to say thanks, as always, and I guess Happy Valentines since for some reason my phone suggested this* emoji after the word always?

*

Even Samsung auto complete loves your work Puja

[FKAS]

A very good half from England and it's baffling that it's 5-14. A little bit more rub of the green/some more cohesion in attack and we'd be 20 points up. Significant improvement from the Italy game on both sides of the ball. Will look at the second half another day.

Puja

Thanks Puja. I felt much the same after watching the first half. I was less sanguine about the hands on the floor from Beard mind, a penalty all day long and with the ref so close there was no excuse for missing that.

[Which Tyler]

TY again Puja - always interesting

[Puja]

Minute 41: Ioan Lloyd kicks off and straight to Freddie Steward. Presumably it's a tactic of some kind, but I've no idea what it's meant to accomplish. Simple catch, simple caterpillar, and Mitchell's got his aim back, because it's an excellent box-kick, landing in a nice place for Freeman to compete and where Winnett's got too far to come to be comfortable. Freeman gets both hands to the ball and slaps it back to England, but it bounces the opposite direction and lands nicely in Dyer's hands. He passes to Lloyd who runs up a blind alley and is very lucky not to get turned over by Earl. It's fine though, as two phases later Wainwright drops a "challenging" pass from Williams and it's now England ball anyway.

Minute 42: The TV director is more interested in moody shots of the Welsh coaching box than showing us the rugby, but I believe this minute is mostly taken up with scrum faffing, followed by a free-kick upgraded to penalty for Wales still engaging too early. Gift of a penalty, which Slade kicks into the 22. It's not an overly ambitious kick, but it does at least get us in there.

Minute 43: England throw to Itoje in the middle and it's clean ball but he tumbles on his way down - hard to tell if that's a lifting failure or if he's been taken out in the air - and so we set a ruck and run two forward rumbles off 9, with first George, then Marler making good ground and laying the ball back swiftly. We then go wider to Dingwall who shows some lovely footwork at the tackle line to take us even further forward and, again, present the ball beautifully. We spin it wide and Wales do well to close down our options on the outside, so Ford picks the right pass to send Slade up, then does the same on the next phase to put Stuart through half a hole. He's fizzing right now and looking very good indeed.

Minute 44: We go wide quickly, Dingwall doing a good job to draw a man and give Daly a run at the corner. In fairness, it's a hard chance - Adams is corner-flagging and has got his angle right to stop him stepping inside, and Winnett is there to make the head-on tackle 5m out, so it would've been an amazing try to score. As it is, Daly tries to go over Winnett, who forces him into touch (where he's then finished off by Adams even as he tries a despairing dive for the line).

You can't help but feel like that's a try that 2024!Daly *can't* score, but another winger might. I don't know if Feyi-Waboso could have, but I fancy his chances more. May be unfair, idk.

Wales throw the lineout to the middle and Itoje is up spoiling. He can't win the ball, but he can spoil it for the Welsh and Wainwright has to collect loose ball right on his own tryline. Wales try to regenerate, but Roots and George put in a dominant hit on the carrier, pinning Wales even closer to their line. Unfortunately, the ruck is a mess and Wales have very little interest in digging it out for the world's toughest box-kick, so the ref awards a scrum to Wales for an unplayable ruck. Probably the right call, but infuriating to have such dominant defence rewarded with Wales getting to move forward 4m and have a setpiece to clear from.

Minute 45: No scrummaging happens.

[Puja]

Minute 46: Assirati is being given a tuning by Marler and going to ground like someone's taped a £5 note to Joe's boots, but he's let away with it twice - first for a reset, and then for the ball to be played away because it's reached the back. Not the ref's fault as he's round the other side, but the touch judge needs to make a call or buy a ticket and sit with the rest of the spectators.

Minute 47: Williams gets the ball out of the collapsed scrum under great pressure from Mitchell and Wales kick long down the 5m channel. Steward catches and runs, looking like he's going open where there's space and England teammates, but then seems to see something blind, puts in fairly standard swerve and has his boots go under him for the second time in the match. Is he wearing mouldies or something?

He is, however, tackled by TWilliams, who was ahead of the kicker and England have advantage. Ford goes for a little chip and chase, but is charged down by Reffell - not a bad idea, as there was space there, but I don't think it was ever on and we'd've been better flinging it wide and giving Freeman a chance to run with the ball. We come back for the pen.

Minute 48: Replay shows how poor that was from Wales - pretty much the entire backline was ahead of Adams when he kicked it, so England get a pick of where they want the penalty. They take the one right in front of the posts and Ford knocks it over for 8-14. Good captaincy there - very easy to get overexcited and chase a try, but better to get back within a score and bank the early pressure.

Minute 49: Wales kick off centrally, to the edge of the 22, where Steward takes it. This one's a tad shorter and makes him work to get there, but it's still very comfortable. We spin it out for Chessum to make a good dominant run for more metres, then slow it down to a caterpillar. Mitchell's kick is good and should've been an England recovery, but Roots fumbles the bouncing ball. He redeems himself somewhat by making a jackal at the ensuing ruck to kill the advantage, but it's still a Welsh scrum.

Minute 50: Wales go for the cross-field kick off the scrum which is beautifully placed - Dyer just has time to catch and kick the ball forward before he's bundled into touch, and Winnett's a better bounce away from getting a run at the line. Instead, it goes into touch.