England beat Wales to set up Autumn Nations Cup final
England secured a 24-13 win over Wales to top their Autumn Nations Cup pool and set up a finals game at Twickenham Stadium.
After wins over Georgia and Ireland, England travelled to Parc y Scarlet in Llanelli and relied on another dominant defensive performance along with a tactical kicking game to secure an eighth Test win in a row.
England, who have now won nine of their last 12 Tests against Wales, started the match on the front foot dominating possession but Wales who took the lead on 10 minutes. Henry Slade’s kick was charged down inside the hosts’ half and after Dan Biggar hacked the bouncing ball forward, Johnny Williams managed to kick it on again and then place down for the first points of the game.
England were on the board four minutes later after an initial break by Sam Underhill saw Kyle Sinckler go close to crossing, but the ball was spun wide and Slade strolled in unopposed.
In a game dominated largely by defence and a tactical kicking game, England took the lead for the first time when Owen Farrell knocked over a penalty on 30 minutes, and he repeated the feat just before the break for an 11-7 half-time lead.
A series of pick and drives close to the line brought England’s second try with Mako Vunipola spinning out of the initial hit to dive over for his first international score since 2014, Farrell converting.
Two penalties from Biggar got Wales to within five points, but after a deliberate knock-on by Elliot Daly, Farrell knocked over his third penalty to extend England’s lead to two scores.
A superb Jack Willis turnover secured England another kickable penalty which Farrell slotted as he took his personal haul to 14 points on the day.
Eddie Jones’ side will now face the France in the final of the Autumn Nations Cup game at Twickenham Stadium next Sunday at 14:00 GMT.
Reaction
England head coach Eddie Jones: “We’d like to play with a bit more fluency but it’s just not there at the moment.
“I’m really pleased with the boys’ effort, I thought their work today was outstanding.
“We want to put a smile on their the fans' faces and hopefully there are plenty of fans at home today with a smile on their face.
“It’s nice to see rugby returning back to having fans as part of the community rather than a virtual part of the community and we want to put a big smile on those coming.”
England captain Owen Farrell: “Of course we feel like we have got more in us, of course we can improve, but in terms of coming down to Wales and getting a win I think it was a good performance.
“We want to stick in the game as much as we can and come out on top in the big moments, and when that presented itself I thought we did really well.
“Our back row is very impressive at the minute, we have some outstanding athletes and outstanding rugby players and you can see that by the people that aren’t here as well. I thought Jack coming in and getting a key turnover was big but all our bench come on and make a big impact towards the end.
“We’re always going to be critical of ourselves, we want to improve as much as we can and it’s good that we have another opportunity to do that next weekend.”
Teams
Wales
15. Leigh Halfpenny, 14. Louis Rees-Zammit, 13. Nick Tompkins, 12. Johnny Williams, 11. Josh Adams, 10. Dan Biggar, 9. Lloyd Williams; 1. Wyn Jones, 2. Ryan Elias, 3. Samson Lee, 4. Jake Ball, 5. Alun Wyn Jones, 6. Shane Lewis-Hughes, 7. James Botham, 8. Taulupe Faletau.
Replacements
16. Elliot Dee, 17. Rhys Carre, 18. Tomas Francis, 19. Will Rowlands, 20. Aaron Wainwright, 21. Rhys Webb, 22. Callum Sheedy, 23. Owen Watkin.
England
15. Elliot Daly, 14. Jonathan Joseph, 13. Henry Slade, 12. Owen Farrell (c), 11. Jonny May, 10. George Ford, 9. Ben Youngs; 1. Mako Vunipola, 2. Jamie George, 3. Kyle Sinckler, 4. Maro Itoje, 5. Joe Launchbury, 6. Tom Curry, 7. Sam Underhill, 8. Billy Vunipola.
Finishers
16. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17. Ellis Genge, 18. Will Stuart, 19. Jonny Hill, 20. Ben Earl, 21. Jack Willis, 22. Dan Robson, 23. Anthony Watson.
ENGLAND MEN 2020 QUILTER INTERNATIONALS AS PART OF THE AUTUMN NATIONS CUP
- England 40-0 Georgia
- England 18-7 Ireland
- Wales 13-24 England
- England v France: Sunday 6 December 2020, KO 14:00 GMT - Twickenham Stadium (LIVE on Amazon Prime)
