19 mins. A return to Wales’s 22 for England ends with no points, which is a novelty in the context of this game so far. Wales manage to clear after Faletau takes a settling carry up.
Ollie Chessum is injured and replaced by Chandler Cunningham-South.
17 mins. The home side really are all at sea at the moment. The latest bit of possession has Williams flinging the ball behind all his backline, which simply invites England forward to smother. There’s some kicks traded before the ball squirms into touch off Llewellyn’s hand as he tries to play a messy bobble.
14 mins. The ball is won safely by Wales but the possession is laboured and eventually Anscombe is caught without a runner to find. He is engulfed by a white wave and held up to give a scrum to England.
12 mins. Wales have hardly had any ball, but even so this in ominous start with England looking altogether too powerful in every facet combined with Fin Smith cannily running the attack. However, there’s a Welsh lineout platform coming on the 22 so let’s see what happens.
11 mins. The upshot of all that was an England scrum and Genge completely folds his opposite number to win a penalty. From the next possession England are snappy in their attack pattern with Earl straightening the line before Fin Smith floats a path to Roebuck who forces over the line despite the attention of three tacklers.
Conversion added
8 mins. Murray is over to touchdown for a try after claiming a loose ball on the right and haring 30 metres up the right touchline. There’s a long look by the TMO as the ball bobbled off a number of players before Murray gripped it and ran. There is no knock-on as it originally went forward of a red player’s head and this put every Welshman in front of play offside; this included Tomos Williams who then impeded an England defender.
No Try!
For those wondering, the officials today are
Referee: Nic Berry (Australia)
Assistant Referees: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia) and Hollie Davidson (Scotland)
Television Match Official (TMO): Mike Adamson (Scotland)
5 mins. Wales possession in the England half has Mee brought into the attack in midfield but he’s a little isolated and that allows Earl to get to the ball and win a turnover penalty. Fin Smith sends it to touch, but Cowan-Dickie’s throw isn’t straight.
3 mins. It’s a simple peel off the lineout that Tom Curry drives to the line. He is stopped but next up Itoje takes turn and drives over to open the scoring very early and give England a perfect start.
Smith converts it.
2 mins. Wales receive, recycle and repel the ball back to their opponents with little fuss. Marcus Smith as a run back and as the visitors start to work phases in the Welsh half the defence is offside. England take the lineout option.
Fin Smith boots the game into action
Alastair Connor emails:
“Borthwick persists with playing Marcus Smith out of position apparently in order to prove that he’s not the best option at 10, which we all know to be false. It’s already a failed experiment (I’m talking about Borthwick, I think)“
Out come the teams under the closed roof with the disco lights and pyrotechnics blazing. They line up for the pre-match formalities.
Matt Sherratt makes a couple of changes to his starting lineup; Joe Roberts replacing the injured Tom Rogers on the wing, and Aaron Wainwright picked to start on the flank ahead of Tommy Reffell. Nick Tompkins returns to a 5-3 split bench.
England have a number of changes, both personnel and positional as Steve Borthwick shuffles his side due to injury and rotation after the Italy win. Marcus Smith returns to fullback and Tommy Freeman shifts to centre in the absence of Olly Lawrence. Tom Roebuck fills the vacancy left by Freeman on the wing. In the forwards Luke Cowan-Dickie replaces Jamie George at hooker, and Ben Curry joins his twin brother Tom in the back row, with Ben Earl shifting to Number 8. The bench features a return for George Ford to a matchday squad and the inclusion of promising young flanker, Henry Pollock.
Wales:
Blair Murray, Ellis Mee, Max Llewellyn, Ben Thomas, Joe Roberts, Gareth Anscombe, Tomos Williams; Nicky Smith, Elliot Dee, WillGriff John, Will Rowlands, Dafydd Jenkins, Aaron Wainwright, Jac Morgan (captain), Taulupe Faletau.
Replacements: Dewi Lake, Gareth Thomas, Keiron Assiratti, Teddy Williams, Tommy Reffell, Rhodri Williams, Jarrod Evans, Nick Tompkins.
England:
Marcus Smith, Tom Roebuck, Tommy Freeman, Fraser Dingwall, Elliot Daly, Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Will Stuart, Maro Itoje, Ollie Chessum, Tom Curry, Ben Curry, Ben Earl.
Replacements: Jamie George, Fin Baxter, Joe Heyes, Chandler Cunningham-South, Henry Pollock, Tom Willis, Jack van Poortvliet, George Ford.
Hit me with your opinions. Have I been harsh in positing that England might not deserve to win the tournament? Your thoughts on this and more are welcomed via email.
The recent passing of Gene Hackman prompted a rewatch of some of his greatest performances; among them his turn as Little Bill, the sheriff in Unforgiven. Facing his own impending death Bill states, “I don’t deserve this … I was building a house”, to which his assassin William Munny replies, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it”. This is so often the way; in films, in life, especially in sport and both teams start the match today with a chance of a prize neither of them have done an awful lot to earn.
After a spluttering, uninspiring few weeks and months, England could win the whole show via their newly found knack of grinding out tight wins against superior opposition. They will need a try bonus point and an unexpected result in Paris, but even so who saw this coming after the Autumn?
Wales on the other hand have an outside chance of losing this match but still not finishing bottom of the table; an act of grand larceny so heinous you would be forgiven for thinking Matt Sherratt was part of the Hatton Garden gang. Two bonus points will be needed here which is not on the outer limits of the plausibility scale. Or they could take the more mundane route of winning today, which opens a whole other rightfulness debate.
There’s much at stake and England and Wales could end up with nothing other than second and a wooden spoon respectively, which could be what they actually deserve. Not that this has much to do with it.
