Wales 30 England 3: Failure on grand scale as England are ripped to shreds

England were ripped apart by a rampant Wales who showed the young pretenders just what championship teams are made of.

The Welsh have won the grand slam three times since England last celebrated the feat, and even though all the talk in the build-up was about the quest of Stuart Lancaster’s young guns to end 10 years without a Six Nations clean sweep, it was the seasoned, gnarled campaigners of Wales who stole the show.

England were embarrassed and shell-shocked. Credit to second-row Geoff Parling who came out afterwards and refused to sugar coat what had been an abject performance on the biggest of stages.

“We felt humiliated at the end,” said the towering Leicester lock from Stockton-on-Tees.

“Normally you can pinpoint a defeat on one area, or one incident, but it wasn’t even that because they beat us all over the park.

“Usually if one area fails then you can rely on other aspects, but everything failed today.

“Our plan A didn’t work, our plan B didn’t work. We played badly, they played well.”

Few could have foreseen such a one-sided outcome.

England’s performances had been gradually getting worse as the tournament progressed, but surely no team that has had a grand slam within sight has had it ripped away so emphatically.

“It’s a massive, massive opportunity lost,” added Parling, who has been one of the standout bright notes of what, overall, has been a campaign of progress for England.

“How many people get the chance to win a grand slam? We’ve not only lost that, we’ve lost the Six Nations as well.

“We’ve done well in this tournament, but when the big game came, the one that really mattered, we’ve let ourselves down.”

Indeed they did; in the scrum, in the loose, at the breakdown, in the tackle and also when it came to discipline.

Red shirts swarmed all over the breakdown, the back row duo of Sam Warburton and Justin Tiperic as majestic as ever.

Up front, they had the greater grunt, dominating the scrum battle to the point where they lost only one all day. England, by contrast, lost four, but that figure still did not reflect the dominance of the red dragons.

“The scrum creaked,” admitted Parling, whose coaches were dismayed at the officiating of Australian referee Steve Walsh.

“Adam Jones (Welsh prop) said to Dan Cole he collapsed the scrum six times and got the call every time, but that’s just something you have to deal with, so fair play to them.”

Wales led 9-3 at the break but it should have been so much more than the three penalties from Leigh Halfpenny, to one from Owen Farrell.

George North was denied a certain try by a flying tap tackle from Mike Brown, while England’s only real threat ended in a dropped pass from Manu Tuilagi when he had runners on his outside who had green space to run into.

It was a mistake that would be symptomatic of England’s evening under the roof of the Millennium Stadium.

Despite scoring chances being at a premium, it was a breathless first half, full of fearsome hits that were fitting of the stage and what was at stake. The atmosphere produced by a highly-charged Welsh crowd inside Cardiff’s cathedral of rugby was electric.

And Wales’s second-half showing was fitting of a champion side, while England’s was worthy of the wooden spoon.

For five minutes the hosts camped on England’s line, but Lancaster’s men defended desperately and successfully, restricting the hosts to just a further Halfpenny penalty.

If that monumental stand gave England hope that they had the measure of the marauding Welsh, then that was quickly, and mercilessly, dashed.

Parling was robbed of possession just outside England’s 22. Rob Howley’s men, who were more urgent, pounced and the ball went through the hands of Mike Phillips and Jamie Roberts before Alex Cuthbert collected on the right, 25 metres from the line. He set off at a tangent, left Brown for dead and crossed in the corner for a score that was greeted with a noise that nearly blew the roof off its hinges.

Halfpenny missed the conversion and then England had a chance to stem the tide when they won a penalty, but fly-half Farrell opted to kick for the posts and missed.

Moments later, Dan Biggar punished them further with a drop goal.

Then came the killer blow. Wales only needed to win by seven to retain the title but they sensed blood.

Warburton cut a swathe through the heart of England with a run that was stopped only by last-man Farrell.

Again the red shirts were quicker to react, and Tipuric set up a two-on-one against Brown that he and Cuthbert were never going to lose, the latter dotting down in the corner for his second try.

Biggar converted and then added a penalty for good measure.

Lancaster’s bench, so often vaunted as his side’s great strength, had too little time to affect the outcome.

England were chasing, a desperation best summed up when replacement scrum-half Danny Care overhit a simple chip to the corner.

England’s players wanted to be anywhere but Cardiff, and certainly won’t have enjoyed watching the Welsh players collect the Six Nations trophy at the end.

“It was a rough old day at the office,” admitted England captain Chris Robshaw, by way of a massive understatement.