England 27-13 Wales: Hosts score five tries but Ford misfires

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Ben YoungsImage source, Reuters
Image caption,

Scrum-half Ben Youngs scored England's third try

England (10) 27

Tries: Burrell, Watson, Youngs, Clifford, Yarde Con: Ford

Wales (13) 13

Try: Evans Con: Biggar Pens: Biggar 2

England scored five tries to beat Wales at Twickenham, ahead of next month's southern hemisphere tours.

Rob Evans crossed early for Wales but fine tries from England backs Luther Burrell and Anthony Watson cut the visitors' lead to 13-10 at half-time.

Ben Youngs gave England the lead with a sniping try before Jack Clifford showed good pace to go over from distance and Marland Yarde crossed out wide.

England fly-half George Ford missed six out of seven kicks at goal.

All change

England's three-Test series against Australia begins in Brisbane on 11 June, the same day Wales' series against New Zealand begins in Auckland.

England handed a debut to Northampton's New Zealand-born flanker Teimana Harrison, Burrell returned at inside centre and Clifford started at number eight.

George Kruis and Maro Itoje having played for Saracens in the Premiership final on Saturday, Joe Launchbury and Lawes resumed their second-row partnership.

Ross Moriarty replaced injured Wales captain Sam Warburton in the back row, slotting in at blind-side flanker with stand-in skipper Dan Lydiate switching to open-side.

Elementary Watson

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Anthony Watson scored his fourth try in his past four Tests

It was Wales who started the brighter at a sunbathed Twickenham and prop Evans made the most of their early pressure, crashing over from close range after an inside pass from Rhys Webb.

But England gradually worked their way into the game and Burrell scored their first try, choosing a great angle and smashing through a tackle from Dan Biggar.

Watson finished magnificently to cut Wales' lead further, the Bath wing shrugging off tackles from Biggar and George North before touching down behind his head.

England might have been ahead had it not been for some ragged goal-kicking from Ford, who missed with three regulation efforts from the tee.

However, Wales also turned down three kicks at goal towards the end of the first half that Biggar surely would have attempted had more been at stake.

England cut loose

Match stats

England

Wales

573

Metres

514

71

Carries

54

103

Tackles

110

15

Missed tackles

21

18

Line-outs won

12

0

Line-outs lost

3

12

Penalties conceded

10

Youngs scored a classic scrum-half's try shortly after the restart, sniping through at the back of a line-out, before Ford missed another straightforward conversion attempt.

Ford could hardly miss when Clifford scored a runaway try under the posts, although replays suggested Dan Cole knocked the ball forward during the build-up.

Yarde extended England's lead with a try in the right-hand corner, after a tremendous hand-off by Lawes on Roberts, as Wales began to disintegrate.

Prop Ellis Genge, hooker Tommy Taylor and Ollie Devoto, who came on for Ford at fly-half, all made debuts from the bench late on as England cantered to victory.

Launchbury back with a bang

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Man of the match Joe Launchbury won two turnovers, produced four gain-line breaks and made 10 tackles

Wasps lock Launchbury has been eclipsed in the England set-up by Itoje, who made such an impact in this year's Six Nations Championship.

But the 25-year-old showed he has not give up on regaining a spot in the starting XV in Australia with a barn-storming, man-of-the-match performance.

What did Eddie Jones make of it?

"Everyone has a bad day missing goal kicks - Tiger Woods misses putts.

"It's just one of those things. I think Ford played exceptionally well for us. I thought he was outstanding."

Read the rest of what Jones had to say.

England: Brown; Watson, Joseph, Burrell, Yarde; Ford, Youngs; Mullan, Hartley, Cole, Launchbury, Lawes, Harrison, Haskell, Clifford.

Replacements: Daly for Joseph (65), Devoto for Ford (75), Care for Youngs (55), Genge for Mullan (65), Taylor for Hartley (76), Hill for Cole (68), Attwood for Lawes (62), Kvesic for Haskell (62).

Wales: L Williams; North, S Williams, Roberts, Amos, Biggar, Webb, Evans, Baldwin, Lee, Ball, AW Jones, Moriarty, Lydiate, Faletau.

Replacements: Anscombe for S Williams (55), Priestland for Biggar (55), L Williams for Webb (65), Jenkins for Evans (55), Dacey for Baldwin (55), R Jones for Lee (62), Turnbull for AW Jones (57), King for Lydiate (23).

Att: 81,128

Ref: Marius Mitrea (Italy).

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