1 year ago
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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.
Teams
Warren 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
Preamble
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.
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