The anthems had barely died away the noise was still rolling down from the stands and the players were

The anthems had barely died away, the noise was still rolling down from the stands and the players were fresh when the story of this match was written.
From the initial kick-off Wales switched play, regained the ball and proceeded to launch wave upon wave of attacks towards the English line. It was difficult to keep count of the number of phases, as the home side won ruck after ruck. And yet they never looked like scoring.The English defensive wall held firm against a staggering assault – with something approaching ease. After battering away for two minutes, Wales were forced to chip in behind the defence and throw themselves at the mercy of the video referee – it was to no avail. Only 15 minutes later Will Greenwood had gone over for a couple of tries and the game was finished as a contest.In truth, it was nearly over once those first series of attacks had been resisted; Wales were clearly going to find it extremely difficult to score. It only remained to see whether or not their own defensive systems were of the same high calibre.

They weren’t.Before the game I had expected England to blow Wales away in the set piece, but this never materialised. The scrummage was even enough and Robin McBryde found his men in most of the line-outs – but it was defensively that the men in red were found wanting. England played with enormous verve, pace and wit but they were aided and abetted by some sloppy Welsh defending.Not that they mistackled or were timid in their physical approach. It is simply that there were too many holes in too many areas and players were continually out of position.From set pieces, the Welsh wings hung back, which allowed Jonny Wilkinson to put Iain Balshaw into the wide channel at will. It was surprising that Wales did not change this system during the game once it was clear that the English were committed to stretching their cover.

Around the fringes the situation was equally dire with the Welsh forwards failing to make their presence felt. Too often they stood flat-footed and allowed their opponents to dictate the terms on which contact was made.The most glaring example was the sight of Chris Wyatt seemingly rooted to the try-line as Matt Dawson tapped and went from a five-yard penalty. Minutes later the same man sniped around the side of a ruck without a hand being laid upon him. No Welsh forward had got to the far side of a ruck which had developed directly from a driven line-out.

The subsequent finish from the Northampton man was world class but he should never have been allowed to reach that position in the first place.Later in the game, Ben Cohen must have been offering up a quiet prayer of thanks as he found himself running straight at the two Welsh props in open play. Those kinds of mismatches are the type that you spend hour after hour on the training field trying to avoid. Sometimes a team simply run out of defenders after a number of quick rucks, but Wales’ defensive patterns looked shaky off one, two or three phases yesterday.In fact, England were so superior in this one key area that they could afford to coast for the last quarter. Clive Woodward will be delighted that his team showed such confidence and composure. Even without Dan Luger, the team oozed pace and encouragingly the passing skills on view were the best they have exhibited for some time.