Warren Gatland’s men were quick out of the blocks this afternoon, opening up a 10-point lead inside 15 minutes as Dan Biggar added a penalty to a converted score from Rob Evans.
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After trailing 10-0 early on, England fought back and eventually surged clear with tries for Luther Burrell, Anthony Watson, Ben Youngs, Jack Clifford and Marland Yarde. That said I believe that his position was never in any real doubt because Dylan’s abrasive style of rugby and the fact that he refuses to take any rubbish from opponents is exactly the type of leadership that this test against Wales and the tour to Australia requires.
England outscored Wales five tries to one to lift the inaugural Old Mutual Wealth Cup.
England now head to Australia for a three-match tour while Wales will be in New Zealand.
Lydiate left the field midway through the first half of Wales’s disappointing 27-13 defeat to England at Twickenham after picking up a hamstring and a shoulder injury.
Even without Farrell and a third of their Grand Slam starting line-up who were involved in the Premiership final 24 hours earlier, England were the superior side in a friendly which drew an 81,128 attendance. England had revenge in the Six Nations, winning 25-21 on their way to the title.
It was not exactly the confidence-building send-off Wales would have wanted for the toughest challenge in the sport – a three-test away series against world champions New Zealand.
“We are trying to keep him relaxed about that by saying it doesn’t normally happen with a first child”.
“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”. The first 20 minutes of that game we probably weren’t quite up to where we needed to be. I think we need to get some perspective on the game here, ” added Jones. We have to take the positives out of today.
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“We only had the squad for a few days before the match and, to put that performance in on that sort of preparation, was a great reward for the squad and the coaches”, he said. While the TMO ruled no, Wales – and particularly Dan Biggar – clearly felt it was the wrong decision, feeling Cole had deliberately tried to intercept the ball and had knocked it on. “Good players do. I don’t talk to him about his kicking but if he wants advice he can always ask Jonny Wilkinson”.
