TWICKENHAM, London — In the end it was record-breaker Ben Youngs who brought order to the chaos.
As Wales threatened the most incredible comeback, with the clock well over the appointed time, it was Youngs who kicked the ball dead to bring an end to a game which looked finished at least four times.
After 53 minutes, England led 17-0. As Wales went for one final attack well beyond 80 minutes, it was 23-17.
Wales knocked on, England celebrated a job done, only for the TMO to intervene and point out a knock on. Those who had left their seats came streaming back in, standing in the concourses. And then after another two minutes of attack against defence, as Wales scrambled to attempt to pull off one of the most famous wins in recent memory, Maro Itoje turned the ball over to leave Youngs to hoof the ball into the night sky and end a bizarre contest.
Youngs, who is on his 115th cap, broke a record for England men’s international appearances and is 22 off the overall record held by ex-England women’s prop Rocky Clarke on 137 caps.
Youngs said afterwards: “They’re never straight forward, these games, 115 not out though, sounds all-right to me!”
The 32-year-old from Leicester Tigers has been one of England’s great constants over the past 12 years. “It’s a great tribute to his work ethic, his resilience and toughness to be the most capped England men’s player,” Jones said.
Now out on his own in the men’s game for England, Youngs has seen it all. He was there for Wales’ remarkable win in the 2015 Rugby World Cup, as they came back from 10 points down to beat England on their own turf. Dan Biggar said during the week he wanted this Wales team to channel that same sort of 2015 spirit come Saturday and at stages they threatened to flip over the apple cart, but England’s young side stood firm to keep their Six Nations hopes alive.
Marcus Smith was again superb at fly-half for England, Alex Dombrandt was outstanding at No. 8. while Charlie Ewels put in his finest performance in an England shirt but there are familiar problems: the attack looked at times disjointed while question marks remain over what is England’s best centre partnership is when they’re without Manu Tuilagi.
Henry Slade was solid, while Elliot Daly brought another kicking option but still they lacked balance. But as Wales’ lineout disintegrated and their indiscipline prevented any momentum, England opted to kick the points rather than gamble and Smith’s 18-point haul alongside Dombrandt’s second-half try ended up being enough to steer them home for a well-deserved victory.
The first half was a stop-start affair, in no way helped by the inconsistent and overly pernickety refereeing from Mark Adamson. The scrums took an age, the players grew increasingly frustrated at perceived inconsistencies. “We felt we weren’t on the right end of it — some of the calls are perhaps debatable, and some are clear,” Biggar said, and then added: “We have no complaints about the performance of the referee.”
Wales wanted to keep the ball in play as much as possible, while trying to tempt England to really go for it in the Welsh hope of then being able to exploit an open field and a disorganised defence. But moves broke down, the handling was poor, and the game was just as much one dominated with the boot as it was the quick movement through hands.
Bar a few Jack Nowell darts, and one outstanding break from Alex Cuthbert, the biggest cheer was reserved for Henry Slade’s superb 50:22 kick in the 35th minute, but whoever was cutting the highlights would’ve had a mission to fill the designated timeslot for that first 40.
Both teams had setbacks. England lost Luke Cowan-Dickie to a knee injury after 25 minutes and Tom Curry at half-time; Liam Williams was sin-binned for knocking the ball out of an England hand within a nose of the tryline but neither resulted in a noticeable shift in momentum.
England took advantage of a shambolic Wales set piece in the early stages of the second half as Alex Dombrandt darted over after an overthrown Welsh lineout on their own 5-metre line. Wales boss Wayne Pivac was aggrieved with the decision to let the try stand, citing how Adam Beard had been prevented from getting off the ground, but the injustice triggered a resurgence from Wales.
After a first half that was frequently halted by the whistle, and the disintegration of play as it went from whistle to whistle, it needed to descend into disorder for it come to life.
England thrived off unstructured play — exploiting a match where briefly it was allowed to flow and amid chaos, they found direction. More often than not, it was Smith who held the strings as he hopped and darted to pick apart Wales’ structure and from there England attacked and came away with points.
“Marcus keeps on developing but he kicked brilliant and it’s a great learning experience for him,” Jones said afterwards.
Wales similarly embraced the added space and chaos with Taulupe Faletau magnificent at No. 8 as he led their resurgence, ably helped by Nick Tompkins and Liam Williams. Josh Adams and Tompkins scored two quick-fire tries and having led 17-0, the match was flipped to a five-point game.
That proved to be the turning point again as Youngs came on for the final 20 minutes to a standing ovation for his own slice of English rugby history. It gave England a welcome wake-up call and despite Wales attempting to regain a foothold in the match, the hosts re-found their focus to pull this match back in their favour and extend it out to a 11-point margin, only for Wales to make it a nervy finish thanks to Kieran Hardy’s 79th minute try. Then came further chaos as Wales threatened but eventually fell short thanks to resolute England defence.
Fundamentally this came down to a case of job done for Jones’ England and gives them a platform to build on ahead of Ireland. Wales’ title aspirations are distant at best with France coming to Cardiff on March 11. Pivac will lament their penalty count, but point to the positives of their second-half attack.
For England, it’s Ireland at Twickenham then France in Paris. With two wins from three, their title aspirations are still alive.