As well as leading 6-0 at half-time, Berry’s team stopped the Six Nations Grand Slam champions from scoring a try. Not a bad achievement when you consider the result between the two teams in February was 55-0 to England.
In fact, the recent results against England, who were runners-up in the 2006 World Cup, have been pretty severe – 55-0, 30-0, 38-15, 81-0, 39-3, 53-3 and 38-0 over the past five years.
It was the boot of the evergreen Non Evans that hoisted the Welsh team into that 6-0 interval lead and they were good value for their advantage. Both sides lost a player to the sin-bin for fighting in that period – Wales’s Catrina Nicholas and England’s Amy Garnett – and Welsh resilience kept the favourites at bay.
It wasn’t until the end of the third quarter that England finally got on the scoresheet with the first of Katy McLean’s four penalties. Then came the killer blow for Welsh hopes as the inspirational Berry left the field with a broken collar bone.
The second half became a rearguard action and as Wales began to infringe more and more, so McLean’s boot punished them. Having levelled the scores after 68 minutes, she gave England the lead for the first time with two minutes to go and sealed the title with her final kick on the stroke of time.
Berry’s team had beaten Scotland 27-10 and France 18-10 on their way to the final, while England had romped home 80-3 against Sweden and then 22-11 against Ireland.
“Wales gave us a very good test – our first real test since the Rugby World Cup Final in 2006. You need tight games like this though and we proved today that we can come from behind and win,” said England Coach Gary Street.
“We are delighted to have won because a lot of very good English sides have failed in this tournament since we last won it in 1997. It’s also great to be crowned Six Nations and European Champions in the same season.”
