The reasons Wales failed to beat England despite showing royal spirit

So Wales fought, but in the end England prevailed to win 24-13 at Parc and Scarlets.

Here’s the story from this Nations Cup clash. All post-match press conferences are here.

There is no defeat then

It dated back to the days of the mid-1990s and early-1990s in terms of the Welsh public’s unease when facing England at home.

There had been a real sense of dread and foreboding, and people feared a loss by 40 or 50 points.

This was understandable, given England’s dominant performance against an Irish team that had dismantled Wales.

Plus, Wayne Pivac didn’t have the likes of Josh Navidi, Ken Owens, Justin Tipuric, Liam Williams, Jonathan Davies, and Ross Moriarty.

So the omens weren’t good for his exhausted, fresh-faced team. Nobody gave them a chance.

However, it turned out that the margin was much closer than most expected, with Wales proving to be competitive as they put on an energetic display.

There was a massive defensive effort as they faced and pressured England at times.

They led from the start and got it back to 18-13 as the game progressed into the fourth quarter.

Ultimately, however, they still ranked second, with England monopolizing possession (59 percent) and territory (65 percent), with their set pieces proving to be dominant.

And when the game was at stake, Wales’ indiscipline cost them as penalties piled up, with 12 awarded in total, allowing Owen Farrell to take the visitors out.

But given the pessimism before the match, it wasn’t as bad as most had anticipated, with some signs of hope.

TMO time

It was almost inevitable that Irishman TMO Brian MacNeice would be centrally involved in this game given the events of the past week and so it turned out.

MacNeice came under fire for his handling of a key incident during last Sunday’s Guinness PRO14 meeting between Ulster and the Scarlets.

When Ulster second line Kieran Treadwell connected with a shoulder to the head of Scarlets mainstay Javan Sebastian, Italian referee Andrea Piardi’s initial instinct was to issue a red card.

But MacNeice dissuaded him from this, who argued that there had been “minimal force at the contact.”

It was an intervention that saw the Irishman roundly criticized and his decision was effectively reversed when Treadwell was summoned and suspended for three weeks.

Luckily, MacNeice was ready to act as the video referee for the Wales-England game and it wasn’t long before he was at the center of events.

It looked like it could be bad news for Wales when he spoke for about ten minutes.

Johnny Williams had landed for an opportunistic try against the game, but MacNeice called referee Romain Poite to check if there had been a hit from Dan Biggar in setup, with Henry Slade’s kick bouncing off Biggar’s spread. hand.

But Poite ruled that it had been a fall, not a blow, so the attempt was sustained.

Five minutes later, the TMO was back in Poite’s ear, but unfortunately for Wales, the Frenchman didn’t even check the incident this time.

MacNeice’s opinion was that Biggar had been tackled in the air by Sam Underhill while taking a high ball in preparation for the England try.

But Poite disagreed and called the game, refusing to review the footage.

After Slade landed wide, the replay showed that there had been clear contact with Biggar in midair before he hit the ground and the attempt should not have been sustained.

It was very surprising that Poite did not review the incident given the cancellation of his TMO and again raises the whole question of how much they should go with their own instincts and how much they should pay attention to the man in the box.

It was a real sequence of swings and roundabouts.

MacNeice was going to be involved a couple more times in a busy first half for him,

At 20 minutes, he called a foul by England No. 2, before changing it to No. 1.

Then, five minutes before halftime, he ruled that there was no foul play in a hit by Elliot Daly on Josh Adams, stating that it was a tackle attempt.

That’s another call that will really divide opinion, as it was an old Daly challenge that seemed to involve shoulder contact first around Adams’s neck area.

You have seen these penalized card hits in other games and there have already been subpoena demands on social media.

So the debate on arbitration goes on and on.

Early boost

England’s tactics from the start were to test Wales with their kicking game.

Repeatedly they put the boot to the ball, either with up and down, kicks down the channels or for distance.

It seemed to be working pretty well as they had the best of air exchanges.

Three times, Leigh Halfpenny failed to claim the ball as he tried to fight his way through traffic and lift himself into the air.

But then the kicking strategy took off.

Under the pressure of a fast line speed, Elliot Daly looked to pass the ball down the left.

But his kick was charged by Biggar, who only managed to keep the ball in play as he followed and advanced, with Johnny Williams throwing one more kick and leaping to score.

It was a marker that capped another encouraging display from Williams, who is off to a good start to his Welsh career inside center.

Shaky piece

After the Dublin tests, the Welsh scrum improved a lot against Georgia, but it was a problem area once again against a powerful English group.

Wayne Pivac had opted for what he considered his strongest scrum front row.

However, there were problems from the beginning.

In the opening scrum at two minutes, Wyn Jones pinged for going early, conceding a free kick, while a second meeting early in the middle of the half resulted in a full penalty.

As for the closed-headed side, Samson Lee had done very well against Georgia, but this was not going to be his day against Mako Vunipola.

He was penalized twice for collapsing, and the second time allowed Owen Farrell to give England an 11-7 lead in the interval.

Then, when the entire Wales front row was penalized shortly after the break, the hook went off for Lee, with Tomas Francis taking over.

He was soon followed off the field by hooker Ryan Elias, who was replaced by Elliot Dee.

Elias’ selection had raised a few eyebrows after his torrid time in the lineout against Ireland and he had a couple of wobbles again, with one of his shots missing the target and another drifting not straight.

In contrast, the England stage was rock solid. They were 100 per cent while Wales lost four lineouts on their own throw in total and were guilty of five scrum infractions.

It was a rock solid attacking scrum that provided the platform for the visitors’ second attempt, with Mako Vunipola digging after a succession of forward picks and gos.

To top the point, England made a final statement with the last scrum of the match to earn an additional penalty.

Therefore, set pieces remain an area of ​​great concern for Wales going forward.

Attack game

With Wales struggling on those set pieces in the first half, they were really hungry for possession.

When you have so little ball, you want to make the most of those scraps.

But, unfortunately, they didn’t, flipping it through spills or loose passes.

Things improved a bit after the break.

They had a little more ball and started to push, drawing a pair of penalties that cut the deficit to 18-13 in the fourth quarter.

The momentum was with them, but they just didn’t have the fixed piece platform to hold it and the game got away amid a succession of penalties.

While the foundation remains so shaky and ball retention falls short of the mark, it will be difficult to develop some kind of attack flow or fluidity.

Unfortunately, that has been the case for much of the fall.

That adds to the feeling that, in five games, you are still not very clear on what Wales are trying to achieve in attack.