Posted on Mar 18, 2013
There is a common belief amongst rugby coaches that small advantages make for big scores. Never was this more true than in the Wales vs. England finale to the 2013 RBS Six Nations.
Historians will read the bare statistics and conclude this was a one sided game in which Wales annihilated a hapless England side. There is a parade of them:
- The final score – Wales managed 10 points for every one that England scored, 30 points to 3 being the final tally.
- Preponderance of play – in the second half 72% of the play was in the England half, in the first half that was a mere 56%.
- Possession – Wales secured 57% of the first half possession and 69% of the second half possession
- Scrums – Wales won 8 scrums to England’s 1
- Lineouts – Wales won 11, England 5
- Penalties – Wales conceded 7 penalties to England’s 12
- Mauls – Wales won 4 to England’s 2
- Line breaks – Wales 8 England 3
- Errors – Wales 34 England 58
- Missed tackles – Wales 11 England 23
There is more, but you will have the picture by now. That picture is, in nearly every phase of play (offloads being the one exception) Wales were superior to England by some margin. The statistics tell a story that Wales came out on to the park, started attacking and did not stop until the final whistle blew. As one pundit said, Wales were better in two key areas: everything they said and everything they did.
So, were the dreadful team that conceded 30 points in the first half to a very ordinary Ireland transformed into supermen as the tournament wound on? Of course they weren’t.
The truth is Wales did everything just a bit better than England, moreover they did it with intensity, commitment and at pace. By half time England were shell-shocked.
As they trudged off the park, there was a weariness in their step that belied the words of Sir Clive Woodward, who believed that England “were still in it at 9-3”. They weren’t. These are professional sportsmen, and they knew in their heart of hearts that this was not going to be their day. They may never admit it, but they wanted to get back to their paddock in the Home Counties and plan for another day.
The fierceness of their encounter with Wales was something most of them had never experienced before and crucially: did not expect. After all, these were the conquerors of the mighty All Blacks. Was there anything that Wales could bring to the party that they had not already seen and overcome in their encounter with New Zealand? Well, the fitness of the All Blacks at the end of a season and after a week of Norovirus may not have been the best measure to use when gauging 80 minutes in the Millennium Stadium with a crowd hyped up by the English press, who had spent weeks crowing about how England only really needed to turn up to complete the Grand Slam procession. 2011 should have told them it does not happen like that. The Celts love a scrap with England.
But in the end, were Wales THAT much better than England? Statistics aside, especially the 27 point margin; was the difference between the two teams so great? If you look at the game with an analytical eye, then you will see that Wales were just a bit better at everything in the first half. They were more committed in the rucks, got the shove on in the scrum and applied enormous pressure against a wilful English defence. England did not buckle under that pressure and instead applied a bit of pressure of their own and had they not made a few nervous errors, they may well have gone into the dressing room in the lead.
Had Tuilagi caught the ball rather than tried to head a goal, he may well have been unstoppable in his headlong charge for the line. It looks like Cuthbert had a bead on him, but many would have bet on the Englishman to have crossed. He didn’t though, because he took his eye off the ball. Why? Probably nerves, the occasion, the crowd. It was something he had never experienced before and the weight of expectation told. He head butted the ball. End of try-scoring opportunity.
80 minutes in the Millennium Stadium with a crowd hyped up by the English press, who had spent weeks crowing about how England only really needed to turn up
Would you have bet on the metronomic right boot of the curiously Welsh named Owen Farrell throwing a wobbly and missing a couple of relatively simple penalties? Of course not. He has been slotting them over in his sleep, but on Saturday, he missed and he missed again in the second half; then he got no more chances. Pressure again. Inexperience. The occasion.
Meanwhile, the REAL Mister Ice, the baby faced assassin, Leigh Halfpenny was keeping the scoreboard ticking over.
These are the differences. England’s much vaunted confidence was shot. Their steamroller had already thrown a gasket against Italy and now they were trying to play rugby in a viper’s nest. The noise in the Millennium Stadium had to be witnessed to be believed.
Then there was the defence. Wales had not conceded a try since just after half time against Ireland. Take a bow the hero of the hour, Mister Sean Edwards (even more curiously Welsh named). The Welsh defence would not cough up a try and all of a sudden, the one man who they could not defend against was kicking goals like a drunk grandmother.
That must have played on the minds of the players around him. Add to that the penalty count mounting up against them and Wales’s edge in the scrum, a source of even more penalties. How could they win the game? Plan A is to score tries. Plan B is to kick penalties. There is no Plan C. This must have passed through the mind of every England player: “How do we go about winning this game?” The empty space where the answer should have been must have drained the will from the men in white.
Steve Walsh played his part. He decided fairly early on that Wales were in the ascendancy in the scrum and penalised England mercilessly. Now, before England fans clutch at the straw that they lost because Walsh has it in for them – and he does have form – he was entirely correct to do so.
Adam Jones took Marler apart and exposed him as pretty much an ordinary front row man who has no answers to the skills of a practitioner like the Ospreys man. There is no shame in that, there are perhaps three or four loose-heads in the world who can cope with Jones, and probably no tight-heads who are his equal.
On the loose side of the scrum, Gethin Jenkins was applying all sorts of tricks of the trade to undermine the normally solid Cole. In fact, I don’t remember one occasion when Jenkins allowed the Englishman to bind properly.
Then in the middle of these two rocks was the giant figure known at the Liberty as Fatrick Swayze, the indomitable Richard Hibbard. His muscular presence added weight and power to an already solid front row. He was partly instrumental in wearing down the English, and contributed just as much as his two front-row companions, Jenkins and Jones.
J.H.J is probably the fiercest front row Wales have had since the Pooler boys stepped onto the park. Their contribution in edging the set-piece contest was absolutely key to Wales getting kickable penalties. The men who put them into these positions were the two back-row jackals, Warburton and Tipuric.
Both of these men faced a near equal in the form of England Captain, Chris Robshaw. He tackled, carried and scrummaged himself into the ground. Unfortunately for England, that point was reached about five minutes after half time. Taking on a performer like Warburton, who has been in a dip and has just climbed back to the pinnacle of his performance curve would have been an enormously difficult task in itself. Taking on Warburton AND the amazingly athletic Tipuric at every breakdown, must have broken the spirit of even this warrior. Given that this is not his natural territory either conspired to make the tackle area a playground for the Welsh loose forwards.
Nullifying Robshaw was always key to the Welsh effort. His ball carrying is normally a feature of England dominance, but on this occasion he was stopped on or about the gain line every time. He built up a bank of yards on his statistical side of the fence, but nearly all of those were to be found between the kick fielder and the Welsh defence. He rarely got further. This was another edge Wales found.
A similar story can be told of the totally marginalised Tom Croft. For a forward, Croft has fair old turn of pace, but he was never allowed room, and his effectiveness at disrupting lineout ball was taken care of by careful planning from Wales. And again, Number 8 Tom Wood, who made even more tackles than Robshaw was not allowed to carry the ball into the heart of the Welsh defence. To be fair, this is not a threat he normally poses anyway, that is more Morgan’s game (another Welsh name). Wood was England’s best forward though, but he did nothing to threaten Wales. Instead he just stood in the way of the tide of events and kept the score down.
In the second row, both Alun-Wyn Jones and Ian Evans had fantastic games. AWJ was always mixing it in the dirty places where backs fear to tread: you could find him wading through the middle of a maul, smashing the pillars out of the way at rucks, and acting as the team enforcer when things got fractious. On the other side of the fence Launchbury looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but that park at that time and there may be question marks over his fitness. Certainly, the very talented Wasps man looked out of sorts and had barely any impact on the game at all. Parling played well, without setting the world alight, but he was being edged every time by the two Welsh locks, both of whom wrote their names into the “probable” column on Gatland’s Lions notebook.
Wales’s backs and half-backs all had very good games, Biggar particularly. The young Ospreys man who seems to have been around forever, ran the Wales line brilliantly, with a casual disregard for the reputation of the young tyro opposite. Of course he was ably assisted by the fired up Mike Phillips, who had his best ever game in a Wales shirt. Wales’s 9th forward was everywhere – ripping bodies out of rucks, making darts for the line, burrowing into mounds of bodies to fetch the ball. He was magnificent. By contrast, Ben Youngs was okay. He normally makes yards, but the Welsh defence kept him quiet all afternoon.
Jamie Roberts rediscovered some of the form that made him the feted man of the tour the last time the Lions ventured overseas, Jonathan Davies ran powerfully and effectively into the dark places where Warburton and Tipuric’s rule was total, George North stabbed icicles of doubt into the hearts of oak, with surging runs at their try line and Alex Cuthbert finished with an aplomb that marks him out as the single most natural finisher in the six nations this year.
Then there was Leigh Halfpenny.
What can you say about this young man that has not been said before? He catches all the high balls, kicks his goals, clears his lines, makes surging runs into the oppositions defence, then goes home and has his tea. Halfpenny is a Gold Sovereign. He is absolutely mint. For a medium sized fellah, he’s a giant amongst… well, giants actually.
Wales were better than England by small margins everywhere, but the most important of these were the tackle area and the scrum. They won their ball in both areas and on many occasions managed to make such a mess of the English effort that Walsh had no choice but to give a penalty. There is a line of thought that says he went easy on England: 12 penalties conceded, mostly in their half and not one yellow card for persistent infringement.
England were lucky that he was so lenient. If he had yellow carded any of their front row or tight forwards, then what ended up as a rout would have turned into a massacre.
Wales won by being just that bit better than England, but managed such a big score by being better at everything. This is the difference between success and failure at this level. This is why the All Blacks are so good, they do everything very, very well. Wales have to build on this, look at the areas where the Southern Hemisphere teams are good and emulate them, then look at where they are not so good and exploit them. That is easier said than done. Doing a job on England is not the same as doing a similar job on the Aussies, Springboks or the All Blacks. Wales need to step up before they can break through.
Meanwhile, they can enjoy the party and kudos of being the team that beat England by a record score and in so doing secured back to back Six Nations Championships, confirming that the third golden era has arrived.
Wales 30 – 3 England
HT Score:Wal 9, Eng 3
Millennium Stadium, Saturday 16th March 2013, KO 17:00
Referee: Steve Walsh
Touch judge Joubert, Craig
Touch judge: Raynal, Mathieu
Fourth official:Kilgore, Marshall
| Wales scorecard |
| Name |
Tries |
Conv |
Pen |
Drop |
Pts |
| Dan Biggar |
|
1 |
1 |
1 |
8 |
| Leigh Halfpenny |
|
|
4 |
|
12 |
| Alex Cuthbert |
2 |
|
|
|
10 |
| Total |
2 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
30 |
| England Score Card |
| Name |
Tries |
Conv |
Pen |
Drop |
Pts |
| Owen Farrell |
|
|
1 |
|
3 |
| Total |
|
|
1 |
|
3 |
When Scarlets centre Jonathan Davies and veteran Dragons lock Rob Sidoli clash at the Millennium Stadium next Saturday they will complete a circle of success which has brought FOUR Six Nations Championship titles to Wales in the last nine years. 
