The victory at Twickenham keeps intact the flawless start to Eddie Jones’s reign as head coach.
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And before Wales could recover, they conceded another score – albeit a contentious one – when England number eight Jack Clifford sprinted clear from halfway to score.
“He’s a tough boy”. I am not anxious about him. He’s a fantastic rugby player.
“He’s a fantastic rugby player and everyone has experiences which aren’t pleasant, but he’ll be fine”. We scored five tries, one was a bit “how’s your mother”, and the other four were scored by backs.
“He knew when to run and he knew when to kick and he had a few dabs himself”.
They were also making a ugly number of mistakes and the errors racked up in the 61st minute when England went over for try number five, wing Marland Yarde dashing over down the right.
However, Australia-bound England struck back just past the quarter with a try that won’t have amused defence coach Shaun Edwards. “That’s quite awesome. It just shows the negative reaction in English rugby”.
He said sarcastically: “May be I should chat to the crowd as well about what they think and who I should pick!”
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.
“Southern hemisphere teams are coming out of competitions where they are pretty battle-hardened and ready for that first Test, and we have demonstrated in the past that we have got better the longer we have spent together”, he explained.
“When you look at the replay it was definitely a try”. Cole tried to catch the ball. With the sun shining, they both kept the ball in hand, trying out various backs moves, but there were plenty of errors too – dropped balls, knock-ons, poor passes and the like.
“I didn’t like how Biggar went on after that”.
But there was no disputing Marland Yarde’s touchdown when he crossed out wide with Jones, who remains unbeaten, adding: “I was surprised we won this game so easily”.
“I’m disappointed with aspects of the second half but they were not things that we can’t fix”.
Wales were bad for an hour and their late comeback that meant the scoreboard read 25-21 at the final whistle only added to their frustration.
“You have got to accept the decision”, said Gatland.
“Dan is struggling, he has a hamstring and potentially an AC injury as well”, said Gatland.
“Dan was adamant it was a knock-on”.
“I was happy with the first half, disappointed with the second half”.
“I actually thought George was brilliant”.
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“We’ve prepared well this week and I’m pleased with the progress the squad have made in the time we’ve had together”.
