Wales 27 England 18:As a former schoolmaster, England head coach Brian Ashton is no stranger to mixed end-of-term reports. "Satisfactory but can be improved" was his verdict on his squad's Six Nations season after Saturday evening's defeat in Cardiff to a relieved Welsh side who saved their best championship effort until last. At least the England management now know a lot more about a raft of players than they did in early February.
Forty-four individuals have been selected in nine Tests since last autumn, and Ashton will spend next week pondering whether to push on towards a rapid half-century. He may well conclude he has no option.
The fundamental lesson, applicable as much at Six Nations level as Old Fartonians Extra Bs, is that teams who finish a distant second up front cannot expect to win matches. Against France six days earlier, England created an enviable platform for their racy young backs. Against the Welsh they were all but blown away in the first 15 minutes and any hint of momentum duly disappeared.
It should be emphasised immediately that Wales fully deserved this stress-busting success and, in Chris Horsman, Alun Wyn-Jones and the imperious James Hook, have found fresh faces capable of lifting them higher than a final Six Nations position of fifth. But just as the French game offered a fresh English mindset and a glimpse of what their young backs might do, Saturday's defeat highlighted the same unsettling absence of mighty white-shirted forward dynamism evident in Dublin. Without Joe Worsley, concussed in the opening minutes, the backrow equation never added up and, apart from yet another lionhearted effort from Martin Corry, the front five displayed little oomph.
It may have been a consequence, suggested Ashton, of the abbreviated six-day turnaround from the French game and a hungrier Welsh back row. The harsher reality is that England's fault-lines are less easily camouflaged on the road. They have lost 12 of their past 13 away matches, conceding an average of 30 points a game in the process.
"I don't think we've taken a step backwards," sighed Ashton on Saturday evening, making clear there would be no turning back to the old days of one-dimensional forward mastodons. "We probably are where we are and Wales played a hell of a lot better than France.
"I felt some players dealt with the game better than others but the young ones will learn a hell of a lot. Maybe it's an experience they've got to go through. It would be very easy to backtrack, say we've got to put in more experienced players and go back to what's happened in the last two to three years."
Complicating the way forward, even so, continues to be the captaincy issue. Phil Vickery was powerless to check the surging green tide in Dublin and Mike Catt's sciatic nerve and hamstring problems have resurfaced to the extent that he may struggle to feature in London Irish's remaining four Premiership games.
It was instructive to note how much England missed Catt's guiding hand when he limped off early in the second half, with his replacement, Jason Robinson, far removed from the killing fields of scrum and breakdown.
If Wales end up facing the English in a World Cup quarter-final in Marseille, Gareth Jenkins's side cannot rely on the early gifts they received in Cardiff. Flood's decision to overrule a prearranged call backfired horribly to present Hook with his early charge-down try, and as Horsman drove over from close range you could almost smell the fresh-baked bread of heaven.
It took a fine Catt break and a right-angled bounce to drag England back into contention through the alert Harry Ellis, and the scrumhalf was also responsible for the wonderful sniping run and clever pass which put Robinson over in the left corner just before the interval. At 18-15 it seemed as if the English tortoise might thrillingly overhaul the Welsh hare; indeed they levelled but then England were undone by their own frailties as Hook and his back row turned the screw. The mature, 21-year-old outhalf ended up with 22 points to earn the sort of feverish acclaim previously reserved for Gavin Henson.
WALES:Morgan (Dragons); M Jones (Scarlets), Shanklin (Blues), G Thomas (Toulouse, capt), S Williams (Ospreys); Hook (Ospreys), Peel (Scarlets; Phillips, Blues, 69); Jenkins (Blues; D Jones, Ospreys, 70), Rees (Scarlets; R Thomas, Blues, 73), Horsman (Worcester; A Jones, Ospreys, 62); Gough (Dragons), Wyn-Jones (Ospreys); Popham (Scarlets; J Thomas, Ospreys, 69), M Williams (Blues), R Jones (Ospreys). Tries:Hook, Horsman. Con:Hook. Pens:Hook 4. Drop-goal:Hook.
ENGLAND:Cueto (Sale); Strettle (Harlequins), Tait (Newcastle), Catt (London Irish, capt; Geraghty, London Irish, 42), Robinson (Sale); Flood (Newcastle), Ellis (Leicester; Perry, Bristol, 69); Payne (Wasps; Turner, Sale, 73), Chuter (Leicester; Mears, Bath 73), White (Leicester); Palmer (Wasps; Deacon, Leicester, 58), Corry (Leicester); Haskell (Wasps), Rees (Wasps), Worsley (Wasps; M Lund, Sale, 9). Tries:Ellis, Robinson. Con:Flood. Pen:Flood. Drop-goal:Flood.
Referee: A Rolland(Ireland).
