England down Wales – England 30-17 Wales

England edged a nervy encounter to launch their Six Nations campaign with victory as Wales failed to engineer a repeat of their 2008 win at Twickenham.

Jonny Wilkinson and Stephen Jones landed a penalty each before a foolish trip by Alun Wyn Jones saw him yellow carded and whilst he was off England took advantage with tries from James Haskell and Danny Care either side of half-time putting England 20-3 up.

Wales hit back with a try from Adam Jones and James Hook’s solo effort with nine minutes left the game open and gave them hope. But Haskell’s second try from an Armitage interception took England clear before Wilkinson’s late penalty gave us the final score of:

England 30-17 Wales

Scorers

England
Tries: Haskell 2, Care Cons: Wilkinson 3 Pens: Wilkinson 3
Wales
Tries: AR Jones, Hook Cons: S Jones 2 Pen: S Jones

Teams

England: Delon Armitage, Mark Cueto, Mathew Tait, Toby Flood, Ugo Monye, Jonny Wilkinson, Danny Care; Tim Payne, Dylan Hartley, David Wilson, Simon Shaw, Steve Borthwick (captain), James Haskell, Lewis Moody, Nick Easter.
Replacements: Dan Cole for Wilson (60), Steve Thompson for Hartley (60), Louis Deacon for Shaw (70), Steffon Armitage for Moody (76), Paul Hodgson for Care (76), Dan Hipkiss for Flood (77).
Not used: Ben Foden.

Wales: Lee Byrne, Tom James, James Hook, Jamie Roberts, Shane Williams, Stephen Jones, Gareth Cooper; Paul James, Gareth Williams, Adam Rhys Jones, Alun-Wyn Jones, Luke Charteris, Andy Powell, Martyn Williams, Ryan Jones (captain).
Replacements: Huw Bennett (for G Williams, 54), Bradley Davies (for Charteris, 54), Leigh Halfpenny (for James, 65), Jonathan Thomas (for Powell, 68), Richie Rees (for Cooper, 68).
Not used: Rhys Gill, Andrew Bishop.

Attendance: 81,406

Referee: Alain Rolland (Ireland)

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