A strong second half performance from Wales set-up a thrilling final ten minutes at Twickenham, in the first of three warm-up games Wales will face before heading to the World Cup.
The visitors preparations were disrupted moments before kick-off when fly-half Stephen Jones, who was set to make his 101st appearance for his country, was forced to pull out of the game with a calf injury he picked up in the warm-up.
His Scarlets team-mate Rhys Priestland who was named at full-back for the fixture was moved up to fly-half with Morgan Stoddart stepping up from the bench.
Priestland settled in well to the playmaker role in his first start for Wales, while it wasn’t such a good day for Stoddart who was stretchered from the field with a serious leg injury.
Gatland and his coaching team will now turn their attentions to the return tie with England at the Millennium Stadium in seven days time and they will be looking to build on the positives from their first outing.
“We are pretty happy with that, we put in a strong second-half performance and we can build on it,” he said.
“We’ve scored three tries to their two and there are plenty of positives.
“We can improve on our accuracy but our first-up tackling was pretty good and it’s a good start for us overall.”
