Just How Good Were England Against Wales?

We've had a few days to reflect on the performances of the weekend and people have been throwing the word "smashed" around when it comes to England's victory over the Welsh. But can a 5 point victory ever be considered a smashing? That's the topic of today's blog as we ask the question, just how good were England against Wales, and conversely just how bad were Wales against England?

The English shut down the Welsh physicality with a powerful scrum and a dominant defensive performance. Robshaw's gritty and determined 26 tackles was the largest amount of tackles in the round, which is very impressive considering how many tackles the Italians were forced into making. The English set pieces were very good as well, aside from a rare couple of poor throws from Dylan Hartley, and at one stage a scrum that was too good, and led to the Welsh try. Let's talk about that try briefly, as it will help set up what I believe is a more telling score line of the game, rather than the actual one that didn't reflect the English dominance.

Lord Robshaw - 26 tackles

What Faletau did in order to set up the Rhys Webb try was brilliant, which is why he was in my team of the week, found here. But should the try have stood? Faletau goes diving in at the feet of the hooker to collect the ball, his knee clearly hits the floor as he steals the ball away from the middle of the scrum. It is absolutely illegal and bizarre that it wasn't referred, Chris Robshaw definitely should have had a word, especially when you see the effect that players and management can have on the decision of a try, which is what happened with Dave Attwood's disallowed one.

Faletau Diving In At Hibbard's Feet

A lot of the talk before the game revolved around England running illegal lines that deliberately block defenders. This clearly had been drilled into the Welsh players and the referee as every man in red was up in arms about what would normally have been called a well run hard line with a man on the loop. Very harsh decision against the English, and I suppose you could attribute both of these decision to "home advantage" but it is a 14 point swing and would have made the final scores 9-28. To add on to the Welsh misery in my hypothetical alternate time line, you have the Haskell "moment".

"HOW!?" Is what I shouted when Haskell was magnificently tackled on the line by the post. The most solid piece of Welsh defence in that second half came from an inanimate object. It is bizarre, because Haskell was so brilliant for the whole game, apart from his two key moments, the missed tackle on Faletau which led to the try that shouldn't have been given, and the opportunity to score a try to seal England's victory early on. A moment he will undoubtedly be embarrassed and could have sealed a 9-35 victory in England's favour - and that most certainly is a smashing.