By Gavin Mairs, Chief Rugby Correspondent, in Cardiff
It was left, it seems, to the 83-year-old Tom Jones to provide the main entertainment in Cardiff on Saturday night, with his live concert at the castle overshadowing the action on show at the Principality Stadium.
Yet while the majority of this contest lacked the intensity and quality of a full-blown Test match, a power play by Wales midway through the second half at least ensured the home crowd found their voices too.
After a horrendous year for Welsh rugby, Warren Gatland will hope this victory marks the turning point, and a catalyst for the rebuilding job that has similarities to the one he managed to pull off in the build-up to the 2011 World Cup, when having finished third in the Six Nations, took his side to the semi-finals in New Zealand.
There were no such crumbs of comfort for England. What was supposed to be a final opportunity for half a dozen players to press their claims for a place in the 33-man World Cup squad to be named by England head coach Steve Borthwick instead descended into another desperate rear-guard action.
If England had been worth their 9-6 lead at the interval thanks to three penalties by Marcus Smith, alarmingly the frailties that undermined their Six Nations campaign do not yet appear to have been fixed, most notably their inability to convert pressure into tries in the red zone and defensive lapses.
Borthwick will have been encouraged by Smith’s first-half performance, while Joe Marchant, Lewis Ludlam, Alex Dombrandt and George Martin all had their moments. At times it looked as if the Harlequins combination of Danny Care, Smith, Dombrandt and Marchant, was bringing the best out of Smith.
Smith certainly played the kind of authority and control that we have rarely seen from him in an England shirt, relishing having full control without having to operate within the shadow of Owen Farrell. On this trajectory he could offer an X-factor option off the bench in the World Cup.
Marchant’s performance also thrust himself forward for one of the utility back places.
But overall, the defeat will have led to more questions than answers. It is possible that some may have played themselves out of the squad, rather than into it on the back of the underwhelming second half.
What is clear is that there still remains much work to do for Borthwick and his management team, whether it is possible to make up ground significantly over the next four weeks remains in doubt. It seems that with little time, the project will be founded on many of the 2019 World Cup side and relying on club combinations to buy in cohesion.
Source: Telegraph
