ENGLAND 26 WALES 18
Wales struggled with their discipline from the start and were reduced to 13 men at one stage in the first-half with both skipper and No.8 Tom Smith and experienced lock Alun Wynne Jones sent to the sin-bin by the pernickety French referee.
On top of that, the powerful English pack came hammering in the tackle area to cause havoc with the Welsh possession. Yet when Wales did finally get the ball into the hands of scrum half Liam Davies they were able to give a glimpse of the talent in their back line.
The first time Davies launched his threequarter line they brought Jamie Roberts in from full back and right wing Darren Daniel sped deep into the English 22.
The Scarlets flier threw the ball back inside when he was tackled 10 metres out and Roberts took the return pass and made the line for the first try. James Hook couldn’t convert from wide out on the right, but that score after 10 minutes at least provided a quick response to Ryan Lamb’s opening penalty two minutes earlier.
Gloucester outside half Lamb regained the lead with a 35 metre penalty before conjuring up a deft cross kick that bounced between Roberts and Chris Czekaj in the Welsh 22 before presenting Olly Morgan with an easy try which Lamb converted to give the home side a 13-5 interval lead.
Wales had played second fiddle throughout the first-half, missing nine tackles and being forced into error after error, but they regained their composure in the second half despite falling further behind when Lamb knocked over his third penalty. But a change at scrum half for Wales, with Martin Roberts taking over from Davies, helped to speed things up for the visitors and two penalties from James Hook brought Wales right back into contention.
England then lost replacement prop Mark Lambert to the sin-bin, yet managed to work left wing Mike Brown clear for their second try. Lamb missed with the conversion and five minutes later Wales were back in the game thanks to a penalty try converted by Hook awarded after England had pulled down a driving line-out.
But with the game in the balance over the final 15 minutes the England defence stood firm and outstanding No 8 Jordan Crane bulldozed his way over from two metres out in the last move of the match to guarantee victory.
Scorers:
England:
Tries: O Morgan, M Brown, J Crane
Con: R Lamb
Pens: R Lamb 3
Wales:
Tries: J Roberts, penalty try
Con: J Hook
Pens: J Hook 2
England U21: O Morgan (Gloucester); J Hoyle (Newcastle Falcons), M Cornwell ( Leicester Tigers, captain), A Allen (Gloucester), M Brown (NEC Harlequins); R Lamb ( Gloucester), B Foden (Sale Sharks); D Hartley (Northampton Saints), C Brooker (Bath), D Wilson (Newcastle Falcons), R Blaze (Worcester Warriors), T Croft (Leicester Tigers), Chris Robshaw (NEC Harlequins), M Hills (Sale Sharks), Jordan Crane (Leeds Tykes)
Replacements: N Briggs (Sale Sharks), M Lambert (NEC Harlequins), T Ryder (Saracens), J Haskell (London Wasps), N Runciman (Worcester), S Geraghty (London Irish), T Ojo (London Irish)
Wales U21: J Roberts (Cardiff); D Daniel (Llanelli), A Bishop (Ospreys), D Hewitt (Cardiff), C Czekaj (Blues); J Hook (Neath), L Davies (Scarlets); R Gill (Cardiff), D Goodfield (Blues), P Osborne (Newport), A Wynne-Jones (Swansea), D Day (Carmarthen Quins), C Everett (Worcester), R Shellard (Pontypridd), T Smith (Neath, captain)
Replacements: E Shervington (Neath), C Mitchell (Neath), I Jones (Llanelli), W Jones (Newport), B Lewis (Newport), M Roberts (Neath)
