Who needs 15 players on the field? – Wales v England
Six nations – Round Three
Cardiff Arms Park
CAP was a wonderful sight: a sea of happy faces on all sides. How times change.
The final result – see below – looked way off as Wales started at a terrific pace. In the first minute Alex Callender was penalised for a heavy tackle on Holly Aitchison as she fielded a long clearance and tried to clear.
Both with and without the ball, the Welsh caused the visitors a lot of trouble in the opening half- hour. England conceded five penalties, such was the pressure.
But like many sides before them, Wales found converting territory into points a poser. When offered a penalty, Keira Bevan opted to pot at goal. Italy too had scored early against the Red Roses; they too failed to add another point. (3-0)
The white shirts worked their way upfield into the breeze. From a ruck close to the line Lucy Packer dummied and pirouetted over the line – a fine start for her and an indication of how her confidence is growing. Emma Sing got the first of her three conversions. (3-7). (Later Lagi Tuima was to shoot 4/4.)
But England had a new 8-9 combo, and Alex Matthews couldn’t ensure easy ball for her No 9 every time.
Wales were almost over, but Joy Neville decreed ‘held up’ More concerns for England’s depleted army when Cath O’Donnell went off for an HIA. She didn’t return.
The kettle was already boiling ready for a nice cuppa when England finally put it all together. A catch and drive, ball back to Aitchison, a wickedly bouncing grubber, and it sat up for Tatyana Heard to claim. (3-12).
Neville was reaching for her half-time whistle when Abby Dow reminded the world of her qualities, a year after her horrific leg injury in the same match. Two wonderful passes (the second a huge looper from Aitchison) gave Dow a millimetre of room on the left. With a fend she was off, leaving a trail of defenders on the deck. Another Dow special.
Half-time 3-19
Delaney Burns replaced Matthews, no doubt a pre-planned adjustment. Sarah Beckett took over at No 8.
Far more worrying for Wales was the series of stoppages to attend to Sisilia Tuipulotu’s left shoulder. She soldiered on till the 53rd minute. All Wales must be praying she recovers fast.
At once England took command. Delightful handling saw Aitchison start and finish a clever move. She had two pals outside her, but dummied to go over herself. This looked like the beginning of another deluge, and it was. (3-24)
A break by the dominating Zoe Aldcroft led to a bounce pass to Sarah Bern. Such errors often cause the defence more worries than the attack. So it was here; Bern advanced at pace and delivered a perfect inside pass to Jess Breach. (3-31) Yes, ‘inside’; but Bern wasn’t permanently playing on the wing.
The big changes came around 50 minutes again. Faces appeared that we haven’t seen in action for a long while, like Hannah Botterman and Maud Muir. That is where England seem to hold such an unfair advantage. The Welsh scrum started creaking, making silky operations in the rear areas more difficult.
Another edge-to-edge handling move saw Ellie Kildunne unmarked on the end. (3-38). The crowd had to sit back and admire.
English recycling was so secure that the analysts had trouble deciding between a 1-second ruck and a 0.001-second ruck. Now Maud Muir got her name on the score sheet (3-45), then a 5-metre penalty was moved left then snapped back right for Botterman to forget all her injury frustrations. With that, up came the familar half-century. (3-52)
The game took an unusual turn when Neville put her cards into overtime. First victim was Kate Williams (contact to head). But the scales swung as first May Campbell, only just on and on debut, then the skipper, both saw yellow. For a period we had 14 v 13. Yet even when Williams returned England managed to score.
Beckett had the intense pleasure of claiming the last score. After her huge disappointment at missing out on a trip to Aotearoa, she could look forward to better times again.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for Wales. They gave Lloegr plenty to think about, but they can’t (yet) match their reserve strength. Few nations can. There was plenty of endeavour fore and aft, but the penalties mounted up again and final passes and repossessions went begging.
They now face two trips to Europe. Success in the bear-pit of Grenoble looks improbable, so all depends on seeing off the Azzurre in Parma. There they have a chance. They need to win one of the pair to ensure their longer term target of a place in the holy of holies, Tier 1 of the WXV.
Result: Wales 3 England 59 Teams:
Wales
15 Courtney Keight, 14 Lisa Neumann, 13 Hannah Jones (captain), 12 Hannah Bluck, 11 Lowri Norkett, 10 Elinor Snowsill, 9 Keira Bevan, 1 Gwenllian Pyrs, 2 Kelsey Jones, 3 Sisilia Tuipulotu, 4 Abbie Fleming, 5 Georgia Evans, 6 Bethan Lewis 7 Alex Callender, 8 Sioned Harries
Bench
16 Carys Phillips, 17 Cara Hope, 18 Cerys Hale, 19 Natalia John, 20 Kate Williams, 21 *Bryonie King Ffion Lewis, 22 Ffion Lewis, 23 Robyn Wilkins
*uncapped
England
15. Emma Sing, 14. Jess Breach, 13. Lagi Tuima, 12. Tatyana Heard, 11. Abby Dow, 10. Holly Aitchison, 9. Lucy Packer, 1. Mackenzie Carson, 2. Lark Davies, 3. Sarah Bern, 4. Zoe Aldcroft, 5. Cath O’Donnell, 6. Sadia Kabeya, 7. Marlie Packer (captain), 8. Alex Matthews
Bench
16. *May Campbell, 17. Hannah Botterman, 18. Maud Muir, 19. Delaney Burns, 20. Sarah Beckett, 21. Ella Wyrwas, 22. Sarah McKenna, 23. Ellie Kildunne
*uncapped
Officials:
Referee: Joy Neville (IRFU)
ARs: Beatrice Benvenuti (FIR) and Maria Pacifico (FIR) TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)
Attendance: 8,862 (another new record, and by a long chalk)
Table after three rounds (France yet to play Scotland):
Table W L Pts
England 3 0 15
France 2 0 10
Wales 2 1 9
Italy 1 2 4
Scotland 0 2 0
Ireland 0 3 0
Afterthoughts
Learning a new language
I know what ’90%’ means; I know what ‘efficient‘ means; I know what ‘spiral’ means; I know what a pass is.
But what on earth is a 90% efficient spiral pass?
Does Sarah Bern realise she fell a whole 10% short of perfection when she put Claudia Macdonald away for the try of the game against Italy? We must hope she spent the whole of the past fortnight putting this failure to rights.
For that is the verdict of Tik Tok’s latest toy, the Smart Ball insights presented by Sage.
We now have a whole new set of stats stacking up in front of us: speed of pass; length of pass; accuracy of pass (see above) and the front rows won’t be left out of the fun either.
Did William Webb Ellis realise what he was letting us in for?
Just for Kicks
Simon Middleton argues for a law-change to overcome kckers’ problems from the touchline. He didn’t do so last year when the world’s favourite media star, Zoe Harrison, kicked 7/7 against the Ferns from every angle.
Ironically, World Rugby had just compiled 110 seconds of kickers landing sideline conversions. Now we waited to see whether Emma Sing could repeat her half-way line successes, as reported by her head coach. Alas, England no longer deal in penalty goals.
Attracting new customers
The Wales website offered:
LAST THREE MEETINGS:
7-74
5-58 (I make that two, but I’m weak at maths)
8,862 turned up. It seems you don’t have to have a long-term successful team to attract custom.
