England beaten by Wales in Cardiff
England were beaten 40-24 by Wales in Cardiff in the third round of the Guinness Six Nations.
In what was a tight game for the majority it was three late Callum Sheedy penalties and a try from Cory Hill in the closing stages that secured Wales the Triple Crown.
It was the hosts who took the lead through a Dan Biggar penalty after five minutes, with England captain Owen Farrell levelling from the tee in the 12th through his own penalty kick.
The first try came from a quickly taken penalty from Wales that caught England unawares and Biggar’s crossfield kick was taken by Josh Adams out wide, and the Welsh wing easily crossed with Biggar adding the extras.
Farrell’s second penalty reduced the deficit but on the half hour mark Wales were awarded a second try contentiously after a check with the television match official. Josh Adams’ kick bouncing grubber was unable to be gathered by Louis Rees-Zammit, but it fell onto his leg and then pushed backwards off retreating England defenders and Liam Williams gathered from the floor to slide over.
England’s first meaningful attack inside Welsh territory brought their first try when quick ball was worked to the right wing and Jamie George fed Anthony Watson who cut back inside and managed to power through three players to cross.
An excellent break from the halfway line from Henry Slade eventually saw England awarded a simple penalty in front of the posts, and Farrell’s strike meant it sat 17-14 to Wales at the break.
After Farrell missed a penalty at the start of the second half, Kieran Hardy’s quick thinking saw him quickly tap a penalty from 12 metres out and dart through unopposed, with replacement fly half Sheedy adding the extras.
Farrell’s fourth penalty reduced the gap to seven points and then another sharp break from deep eventually saw Ben Youngs dummy from the base of the ruck, wriggle through two challenges and score – Farrell’s conversion levelling the game and bringing up 1,000 Test points.
In the 67th minute Wales retook the lead through Sheedy’s penalty and he slotted another two with less than 10 minutes to go to extend the lead.
With a minute to go Cory Hill hit a short line off the base of the ruck for Wales' fourth bonus-point try and the conversion saw the score finish 40-24.
Milestones
Elliot Daly led England out onto the pitch at the Principality Stadium on the day of his 50th cap.
The full back made his debut against Ireland at Twickenham in 2016 and has scored 109 points for England so far, including 17 tries.
Captain Owen Farrell also hit the 1,000 Test points for England mark becoming only the second player to reach this milestone after 2003 Rugby World Cup winner Jonny Wilkinson.
It has taken Farrell 91 Tests to reach the landmark since his debut for his country when he started in the win over Scotland at Murrayfield in the 2012 Six Nations.
Reaction
England head coach Eddie Jones: "We played some good rugby today. We got in the 22 eight times compared to their six times which gives an indication of the quality of your play, but you’ve got to be able to convert that which we weren’t able to do.
“We’re pleased with the effort of the team. No one can say we’re not a hardworking, honest group and we’ll learn from this, it’s a great lesson for us.
“We can’t argue with the referee, the result is there in stone and we’ve got to accept it. Maybe they were tough calls but we weren’t good enough to overcome that.
“We’ve got to accept that we weren’t good enough on the day. We might’ve had some tough calls but we’ve got to be able to adapt to the game, adapt to the referee - if the referee is going to referee like that, we’ve got to be able to adapt to it.”
England captain Owen Farrell: “We got our way back into it in that second half and didn’t quite finish it off – there’s plenty that we can do better.”
“I thought the effort and intent were good today but we can’t let teams off that many times like we did today.
“It is the whole team’s job [to stay disciplined], to make sure that in the game we’re looking after each other and we’re all on the same page, and we’ll look at we can do that better.”
Teams
ENGLAND
15. Elliot Daly, 14. Anthony Watson, 13. Henry Slade, 12. Owen Farrell (c), 11. Jonny May, 10. George Ford, 9. Ben Youngs; 1. Mako Vunipola, 2. Jamie George, 3. Kyle Sinckler, 4. Maro Itoje, 5. Jonny Hill, 6. Mark Wilson, 7. Tom Curry, 8. Billy Vunipola.
FINISHERS
16. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17. Ellis Genge, 18. Will Stuart, 19. Charlie Ewels, 20. George Martin, 21. Ben Earl, 22. Dan Robson, 23. Max Malins.
WALES
15. Liam Williams, 14. Louis Rees-Zammit, 13. George North, 12. Jonathan Davies, 11. Josh Adams, 10. Dan Biggar, 9. Kieran Hardy; 1. Wyn Jones, 2. Ken Owens, 3. Tomas Francis, 4. Adam Beard, 5. Alun Wyn Jones (c), 6. Josh Navidi, 7. Justin Tipuric, 8. Taulupe Faletau.
REPLACEMENTS
16. Elliot Dee, 17. Rhodri Jones, 18. Leon Brown, 19. Cory Hill, 20. James Botham, 21. Gareth Davies, 22. Callum Sheedy, 23. Uilisi Halaholo.
