4 February 2005
England 47 Wales 13
Dominant England thundered in six glorious touchdowns against the 2005 Grand Slam winners at Twickenham this afternoon to kick start their 2006 RBS 6 Nations campaign in commanding style.

The world champions, leading 15-10 at the interval, hit top form after the break to squeeze the fire and passion out of the Welsh dragons and to mark a return to something matching their 2003 all-conquering best.

And there was a try apiece from two of their World Cup heroes as both crowd favourite and former skipper Lawrence Dallaglio and scrum half Matt Dawson came off the bench to touch down.

Mark Cueto and Lewis Moody had grabbed the touchdowns in a stuttering opening 40 minute display before Mike Tindall, Dallaglio, Dawson and, another of the replacements, Tom Voyce, on his Six Nations debut, ran in second half tries to delight the majority of the 70,000 crowd.

England Head Coach, Andy Robinson, said: “During the autumn the team set a benchmark and this was a level up and very pleasing for everybody involved.

“It was good to see the interchange between forward and backs. Our ability to play in different ways is important and we showed that today.

“We said all along this game was about winning. There was some tremendous leadership in the team: Martin Corry as captain; Charlie Hodgson running the attack; Lewis Moody running the defence – they’ve all been superb as have Harry Ellis and Mike Tindall. It’s about the team.

“Joe Lydon has done a tremendous job along with Phil Larder. It was pretty fast out there and I was catching my breath on the side line.”

The early exchanges were even although from the first lineout England stole the Welsh ball, something they did quite often through the game, while in the tight they also looked comfortable and by the fourth quarter were totally dominant.

But it was a lineout that yielded their first points as lock Steve Borthwick’s take was fed out to centre Jamie Noon whose little check inside committed two of the Wales defenders.

Noon’s short pass out found right wing Mark Cueto steaming in from the wing to burst straight through the midfield and over unchallenged to give fly half Charlie Hodgson the easiest of conversions.

Wales replied immediately as scrum half Harry Ellis was caught offside at the base of a scrum in his own 22 for fly half Stephen Jones to slot. They very nearly had a try from left wing Shane Williams but for some quick anticipation from England wing Ben Cohen who raced across from his own wing and bundled Williams’ little kick ahead into the England in-goal area out of play.

From the restart England won a penalty as Wales strayed offside at the ruck and Hodgson banged over the kick to put England 10-3 in front after 26 minutes.

Four minutes later they were 15-3 to the good following a huge drive off a lineout deep inside the Welsh 22 that was finished off by flanker Lewis Moody.

A lightning break from scrum half Dwane Peel around the back of a lineout just three minutes later, however, rocked England back on their heels as he found flanker Martyn Williams on hand to bundle past Voyce, now on for Josh Lewsey, and Hodgson on the line for a try.

Jones’ conversion made it 15-10 and that’s how it remained until three minutes into the second half when Wales flanker Colin Charvis was penalised close to his own line and Hodgson slotted his second penalty.

Although England were winning valuable turnover ball and stealing some of the Welsh lineouts, a poor pass in midfield allowed Wales into the England 22 and for a few minutes they were under the cosh before they eventually conceded a penalty that was easily banged over by Jones.

But from the restart Wales flanker Martyn Williams shoulder charged Moody off the ball and was immediately handed a yellow card by referee Paul Honiss and England proceeded to take the game by the scruff of the neck and run the steam out of Wales.

Hodgson banged over the resultant penalty and although he missed with one on 59 minutes England swept back to cross for their third try just two minutes later.

The move started up the right wing with a charge from RBS man of the match prop Matt Stevens and, with Noon and Voyce testing the Wales defence, the ball eventually came back via Ellis and Hodgson to send in centre Mike Tindall, who was enjoying one of his best performances in an England shirt.

It went unconverted but with Wales visibly tiring and England bringing on Julian White in the front row they pressed home their advantage and forced Wales into a knock-on in their own in-goal area.

The England pack put in a huge shove and Dallaglio picked up from the tail and crashed over for the try.

Hodgson converted and was immediately replaced by Andy Goode with Dawson and lock Simon Shaw also coming on.

Some fresh legs and some fresh impetus were evident as England marched back into the Welsh 22 and from a Welsh put in Dawson knocked the ball out of No 8 Michael Owens’ hands and picked up to run in try number five.

Goode converted as he did with England’s final try into injury time in which he lent a hand twice before sending Voyce in under the posts to cap a hugely encouraging display.