Two-try hero: Alex Cuthbert
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Wales claimed the Six Nations title on Saturday as they emphatically shut out rivals England 30-3 at the Millennium Stadium in a humdinger of a match.
Two tries from Alex Cuthbert, who ends with four scores to his name, proved to be the turning point in the game after a first-half that ended try-less.
It was a performance that brought back memories of their 2011 World Cup form and showed the potential this Welsh team has going into 2015.
Put simply, England were outplayed and could not cross the whitewash - now having done so just once in their last four games - as the Six Nations and Grand Slam both disappeared into the night.
As it was the defending Grand Slam champions that bettered a 108-year-old record to clinch their biggest ever win over England, surpassing the 25-point margin recorded in a 25-0 win in 1905.
The first-half was a rip-roaring affair in Cardiff as both teams went at each other hammer and tongs in an entertaining spectacle that had both fans in the stadium and viewers watching at home on the edge of their seats.
After building a 12-3 lead early in the second-half, through four penalties by full-back Leigh Halfpenny to one from England ten Owen Farrell, Wales surged ahead through Cuthbert.
That Welsh try - like in 2012 for Scott Williams - was one that came from the English losing possession in contact and when the ball found its way to Cuthbert on the right wing, the finisher fended off England back Mike Brown en route to a 35-metre run in.
That put them 17-3 in front and minutes later Farrell missed his second shot out of three.
Dan Biggar added a drop before Cuthbert stormed in for another try after good work from Sam Warburton and then Justin Tipuric, with Biggar completing the rout with a penalty.
This was Wales's second victory in a row over England, with the Welsh the only side to defeat the English in Six Nations action since Stuart Lancaster became coach in 2012.
Man of the match: So many Welsh players put their hands up as the pack as a whole, Dan Biggar, Jamie Roberts et al all stood tall in Cardiff. But we go for Justin Tipuric, whose fine showing on the openside flank was capped off by a superb assist for Alex Cuthbert.
Moment of the match: At 12-3 with over 50 minutes gone, the ball squirting out of a ruck and eventually finding Alex Cuthbert was the last thing England needed. The Cardiff Blues wing showed great pace to go around Mike Brown for a massive score in the context of the game.
Villain of the match: Nothing nasty to report.
The scorers:
For Wales:
Tries: Cuthbert 2
Con: Biggar
Pen: Halfpenny 5, Biggar
For England:
Pen: Farrell
Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 George North, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Justin Tipuric, 6 Sam Warburton, 5 Ian Evans, 4 Alun-Wyn Jones, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Richard Hibbard, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Paul James, 18 Scott Andrews, 19 Andrew Coombs, 20 Aaron Shingler, 21 Lloyd Williams, 22 James Hook, 23 Scott Williams.
England: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Mike Brown, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Tom Wood, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 Tom Croft, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 David Wilson, 18 Mako Vunipola, 19 Courtney Lawes, 20 James Haskell, 21 Danny Care, 22 Toby Flood, 23 Billy Twelvetrees.
Referee: Steve Walsh (Australia)
Assistant referees: Craig Joubert (South Africa), John Lacey (Ireland)
Television match official: Marshall Kilgore (Ireland)
Comments
kennyisgay says...
capeloser... I'll take em pretty sheep of ours over your alien psycho missus. Would you both just phone home and disappear?
Posted 07:56 23rd March 2013
carpelone says...
kennyisgay
That's why you haven't posted for a while. You were busy creating such nicknames.
Well done, what a fantastic achievement.
But now go, don't let your sheep wait too much for you.
Posted 13:15 21st March 2013
kennyisgay says...
carpeloser... perhaps you saffas should focus on reffing cos you suck at playing the game. How's your missus bokaverage
Posted 20:26 19th March 2013
APV1 says...
Wales were awesome and beat us off the field everywhere. Congratulations on a well-deserved tournament victory!
With only a couple of exceptions, we were awful.
Goode can go. Brown is a full-back (do you think he would have been burned on the outside if he had a winger's pace?).
Ashton can go - he can't tackle and isn't running the lines he used to.
Tuilagi was woeful - no bashing breaks and poor in defence.
Our FR were shown up to be too green for this level. A Jones gave them a lesson on how to scrummage and how to play the ref - what a player! Marler and Mako need more international experience, as does Youngs (Webber and Youngs to tour with England?)
Parling was excellent, but Launch had an off game.
Wood isn't an 8 - we need Morgan and Vunipola. Wood is an awesome 6.
Croft and Haskell now have to be marginalised.
Farrell can kick and defend, but there's not a lot else to him. Burns is the future.
Youngs & Care need better 8s and 10s to make their job easier. Both are still damned good.
36 should be our starting 12. Barritt played his heart out, but could he move to 13 permanently? If not, who? Tuilagi missed tackles, didn't pass when he should and failed to pick good lines. One trick?
And we need wingers on the wing.
Walsh was shown up to be naive at best, or just plain useless at worst. A Jones took him for a fool and we failed to adjust. Wales taught us a lesson on how to play fantastic rugby on a rubbish pitch (the stadium is fantastic, but they need to do more than lay a 2 inch carpet of turf) and it started with their FR. Tipuric is now the nailed-on Lions 7.
The future starting 15..?
Corbs Youngs Cole
Parling Launchbury
Wood Robshaw Morgan
Youngs
Burns
36
Barritt (??)
Foden (if we have to have a 15 on the wing, let's have one with the pace)
Wade / Vardell / Biggs / May
Brown
Again, Wales deserved their win - congratulations!
Posted 10:25 19th March 2013
7ton says...
Carpelone
Ouch! you have really stuck the boot into me now with that insult LOL! I am a Welsh/Kiwi not a English/Kiwi.
I would wager your Italian friends are only pretending to agree with you as long as you keep feeding them with your food and Beer/wine. They really know class when they see it HaHa!
Seriously I think there is real potential in Italy especially if the game becomes more and more popular so well done for promoting the game there!
Posted 05:59 19th March 2013
dylbull says...
Well figuratively that was a blood bath!
Lancaster got it spot on in the post match interview, England just did not turn up.
I have enjoyed watching this England team develop into a team that is very hard to beat... normally.... but some of their weaknesses were peeping through against the Italians and then badly exposed on saturday against the welsh...
Tuiliagi can't pass, Ashton can't tackle, Farrell & Barritt are unable to get their backline moving, maybe that is because Tuilagi is there. In my opinion the best the England backline looked all 6 nations was the game Twelvetrees played and then in came Tuilagi, yes he is a beast, yes he can hurt players, but if someone stands up to him physically, as Roberts did, he has nothing more to offer.
England also did not seem to have the attacking potency from their back three... it's time for a re-think, surely players like Wade and Simpson-Daniel need to be considered... also is Botica not eligible?
Posted 17:29 18th March 2013
new_j4a says...
@carpelone, i am always willing to join you in a braai or bashing Oz....both make me happy.... :)
Posted 12:03 18th March 2013
jonesy2 says...
well done to wales. horrible first half by both teams just slightly less so wales, then that 15 minutes period in the second when they produced to only good rugby of the game and im assuming, the six nations, and won it, fantastic. but based on what i saw the lions are going to have absolutely no chance this year. england were just diabolical and horrendous in every facet and wales, whenever they went forward, they turned it over and/or dropped the ball aside from the aformentioned 15 min period. and whats worse is the UK teams seem to be clueless at scrum time as well as every other time. defence for both sides was decent but i think that is more a reflection of the attacking sides inability to hold the ball and make any real threatening plays, i mean where were the centres for both sides?. george north should be playing in the centres he is far too slow to be a winger and he needs to learn when to give the offload/pass. tipuric had a good game, looks a real good player, will get a lesson and huge dose of reality when he comes up against hooper and gill although so will all the lions. was glad they listened to me and put warburton on the blindside also. wallabies will be hoping at least one or two poms (or samoans) are selected for the lions but i cant see it happening.
Posted 09:46 18th March 2013
carpelone says...
New_j4a
My English/Kiwi friend 7ton caught me with this. Just having an innocent banter towards our Australasian rivals. I was not totally wrong though, especially at scrumtime. Wales' scrum was awesome by the way.
7ton
The majority of Italians support New Zealand (possibly for their ignorance of the game), but I am winning the loyalty of some of them with my braais. Supporting Italy can be frustrating some times, they should have finish off the game in the first half.
Posted 09:40 18th March 2013
JamieTheProp says...
@ Jhamer25 - I don't remember ever stating that England are world beaters - I've only ever said that they are an improving side who, up until yesterday, have been the best team in the 6 Nations (which our position at the top of the table proved).
Wales were by far the better team yesterday and else served the win (and unlike a lot of posters I won't blame Walsh - especially at scrum time where I thought Wales were awesome) - but the fact is that the win was on points difference against a young, improving but hardly finished article England team.
Before the start of the tournament I said second place and a step forward would be considered a success - we achieved both! So there we go.
Wales are the better team at the moment - but if lessons are learnt England can close the gap - and next year the game is at Twickenham! All to play for as the World Cup comes closer!
Posted 23:57 17th March 2013
7ton says...
Carpelone
Hello! my Italian/South African friend.
We all know that when it comes to anything to do with NZ/Aus you are far from being neutral. You love to have a little dig and you are not fooling anyone by claiming to be neutral while hiding behind the Wales/England game LOL!
Not a bad performance by Italy though
Cheers
Well done and congratulations to Wales on a record win. After a bad 50 minutes against Ireland at the beginning they stuck at it, didn't give up and fully deserve to be 6N champions.
Posted 21:23 17th March 2013
jontheref says...
1st58
Interesting selection.
14 Welsh, 9 English, 6 Irish and 4 Scottish.
They will take 35, and you choose Adam Jones as potential captain, which I doubt very much.
Before Burns I think you would see Jonny W going, and don't forget Gatland loves Priestland.
Good to get the arguments raging though!
Posted 20:32 17th March 2013
jontheref says...
headhunter
Well said, I don't gloat over games like this, it is still painful to remember when it was the other way.
I am sure the record English margin is more than 27, will have to check.
Agree about bon hommie amongst fans, pre and post match.
Glad you enjoyed.
I'm not writing England off, they have shown they can play with pace and agression, and SL knows where his weak links are.
Argentina will be a good test for them, less their Lions.
Posted 20:21 17th March 2013
new_j4a says...
@carpelone, that is a serious assertion to make about Walsh. Respectfully, may I request a little more detail? Specifics?
Posted 20:10 17th March 2013
LondonWasp says...
@Philly
err no, it doesn't. you are getting carried away.
whether you like it or not, england did play well against NZ. against wales they didn't play well, hell even georgia could have beaten us.
Posted 18:13 17th March 2013
Stag says...
@kybone: that irish team had guts, character and know-how. None of those traits would be associated with this England team.
Posted 18:06 17th March 2013
Monkeyboy says...
Kybone- t's a shame the Welsh clubs/provinces can't fork out for expensive imports/league players. Maybe being forced to develop from within isn't such a bad thing. The AP and T14s attempts to reduce that domestic development is. We may have propped up the pools, but the changes your lads are suggesting want to kill that development off with the preference for the football style assembly of multinational squads. Or more specifically multinational squads based on English teams for English fans. Yet which league has produced the last few HC/6N winners?
Posted 17:34 17th March 2013
rugby_rockstar says...
I really hope that this is the end of tom croft's england career. And finger's crossed Glaws or bath poach him from leietser sooner rather than later. Was there ever a more hyped up glorified winger playing in the back row? Probably not since all the fuss about James Forester.
Forwards win matches, so it isn;t very clever to take seven vs eight. Bread and Butter comes first. Poncing about in the back line is a luxury you just don't get in test match level.
Posted 17:27 17th March 2013
Mayhem says...
@lyhel
No doubting French pedigree in this tournament down the years. They are as consistent as they are excellent, I'm a real fan French rugby. I hope they return to what we all know they are capable of. I'm half welsh but picamoles is my man of the tournament. You agree?
Posted 15:48 17th March 2013
kybone says...
Monkeyboy- Having a good national team isn't vindication of the domestic competition. The Pro 12 is still poor- Look at the Heineken cup, all 6 pools propped up by a pro12 club and, despite having the most participants, the pro12 has the least teams through to the last 8. Holland has one of the best football teams, does that mean that their league is among the best? Of course not. By the way, are you watching the LV cup final today? I dont see any welsh sides. You wouldn't have seen any in the semi's either for that matter,, because they'd been knocked out by their weak AP rivals.
Wales= Brilliant
Welsh clubs= Shite
Posted 15:46 17th March 2013