But Wales responded by establishing a foothold inside England’s 22, and after centre Jamie Roberts charged through on an angle, scrum-half Rhys Webb sent prop Rob Evans over for his first global try, with fly-half Dan Biggar’s conversion opening up a 7-0 lead inside six minutes.
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George Ford had a day to forget with the boot for England against Wales.
Ford had been earmarked to start the first Test against Australia in a fortnight’s time and in response to demand for Owen Farrell to be given the 10 jersey for the tour opener in Brisbane, Jones mounted a strong defence of the 23-year-old. Credit to the boys, they stuck in there and we got the win in the end. “I thought he was brilliant, I thought he was really good”.
The Lions ace won’t be on the Monday flight to New Zealand and head coach Warren Gatland expects to name a replacement in his squad for the three Tests against the All Blacks and midweek fixture with the Chiefs.
“We’ve just beaten Wales five tries to one and we’re talking about a guy who can’t kick a few goals”. If you score four tries against Wales your stand-off is doing something right.
Gatland said: “I thought there were a lot of positives about the first half”.
“When you look at the replay it was definitely a try”.
The challenge had been laid down for Wales to fly out of the blocks after frustratingly only waking from their slumber late on in the Six Nations 25-21 loss.
The “how’s your mother” try – from Jack Clifford in the 47th minute – was the pivotal score on which the game turned in that it moved England into clear water at 22-13. But England got back in it on the 20 minute mark.
The England head coach also highlighted the fact that Wales were close to full-strength whereas England were missing a whole host of players, yet still managed to come away with a convincing victory.
Two tries in the space of three minutes early in the third quarter transformed the contest, Youngs smartly dummying his way over and Clifford seizing on a loose ball knocked backwards by Dan Cole to race 50 metres. “We have got to be careful of that in rugby”, Jones said.
England could have won by a far bigger margin if George Ford had not endured such an off day from the tee, but Gatland was not downhearted.
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Roberts added of England’s win: “I think they deserved the victory”.
