ruggerblogger: Wales 19

Millennium Stadium
13 August 2011

Three weeks to go before the RWC 2011 and Martin Johnson has some serious questions to ponder. No doubt a great player, his coaching nous is not looking to match those playing days. He is a shadow of the tactician when compared to the likes of Father Ted or Robbie Deans.

Although their forwards contributed a solid platform winning from most set piece ball, England were absolutely clueless on attack (as per usual). Dominating territory and possession by up to 70% in the first half, they had absolutely no answers when it came to crossing the try line. Why can't English backs score tries?

This is not to discredit Wales who gave an incredible defensive display, particularly in the first half. They pushed England behind the gain line again and again. And then, when it counted, they trusted themselves to grasp the opportunity and score a try (hat tip James Hook), which was the decisive moment in the game.

Three weeks out and Warren Gatland will be feeling a little more pleased with his progress. Martin Johnson, not so. In his post match interview the England coach angled towards blaming a ref that by all accounts, kept England in the game by sending off two Welsh players. I think MJ has to face the facts and start looking at other ways to win rugby, rather than out-hulking the other team.

It's all very well to say they were missing Chris Ashton (who I rate as a very good winger) and Tuialagi (who I don't rate just yet, one test match does not a rugby legend at the age of 20 make).

So back to the drawing boards/laptops for England once again. For Wales, a night of well deserved celebration.

Here's what Stephen Jones of the Sunday Times had to say.

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Wales 19 England 9: Wasteful England picked off

Wales earned a thoroughly deserved victory at the Millennium stadium as England's indecision in midfield cost them dear

Stephen JonesPublished: 14 August 2011

Welsh No 8 Toby Faletau leaps into action as Mike Tindall motors forward (Glyn Kirk)

After two weeks of serious battling, it is Wales who now look the more convincing team as the World Cup approaches.
This was a victory that they thoroughly deserved, and it was gained with a team that will be augmented by at least five players of true world class who were absent yesterday.
Surely, the whole thing will be orchestrated by the marvellous James Hook from fly-half. When Hook moved to that position from the wilderness of fullback yesterday, the comparisons with the England playmakers were brutal.
The myth grew around the England camp, and among some supporters in Cardiff last night, that they were decidedly unlucky. The basis of this myth was laid by nearly an hour of England dominance, in which their forwards had authority in terms of possession and territory. It was a period of pressure that involved six consecutive scrums on the Wales line and it shut out the hosts completely.
For any English supporter or team official clinging to this myth, reality will be like a bath in ice. England were meaty, but meat heads. For all their authority, they had nothing remotely resembling an attack, their midfield was diabolically bad, and their composure, skill and pace when taking chances simply did not exist.

It must have been galling for the likes of Louis Deacon and Hendre Fourie to turn back so much ball only to see it frittered away.
Toby Flood and the England midfield trod in a bog of indecision, lack of skill and tortuous bundling.
Take just two blown chances. Danny Care made a brilliant break to set England onto the front foot and when the ball came back to Flood, with all of England screaming for the ball out wide, he lamely turned it back inside. You sensed that if England had 14 men overlapping down the right, Flood would have passed the ball back inside to the ref. Hape, who was embarrassingly bad in all phases of play, butchered another strong position with a fumbling turnover.
It is difficult to know how many reality checks this England need to grasp that they have it so wrong. Please watch a replay of the game and tell me that England have a midfield. Tell me that they have leaders — when Wales came steaming back in the final quarter, showing an attacking intent completely beyond England, the visiting team collapsed totally as Hook conjured a victory out of thin air.
Watch the replay and tell me that England do not need an elite performance director to make sense of the shambles that the international team and its back-up procedures has become. They now go to Dublin in a fortnight to play a powerful Ireland team with around eight of their first-choice selections in serious doubt.
Wales were not lucky to win — they deserved to because they were the better team. Furthermore, their coaches must take plaudits, for it seems that their rigorous fitness programmes have delivered a team with more endurance than England. Dan Lydiate on the blindside and Jamie Roberts in midfield led a magnificent Welsh line, which England could never penetrate.