England fielded a XV which promised to combine the dogedness of experience and the enterprise and vigour of youth, and for the first 50 minutes this promise shone through.However as chance after chance slipped by for the home team one was compelled to begin fearing for the cost of those missed opportunities either side of the interval.
Control of the collision area, set pieces and a huge number of successful turnovers provided England with the sort of platform suited to gaining a 30 point lead, but this never materialised.
And then it went from bad to absolutely awful.
Schoolboy
A host of England's senior players including Gomersall, Wilkinson and Balshaw all conspired to produce rugby not worthy of a school boys fixture to hand the Welsh the game.
Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards are clearly two of the best coaches in the world but their expressions at the end of the game summed up the whole day. Amusement, they couldn't quite believe what England had just done.Balshaw is one player who you feel has already used up his nine international lives and could be heading for the Saxons squad who performed remarkably better by finishing off the Irish on Friday.
Hopefully the rest of the team will be given a chance to redeem themselves, however a host of injuries could force Ashton's hand.
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