England head coach Steve Borthwick said he was immensely ‘proud’ of his players after they came through a ‘hard-fought’ Six Nations encounter with Wales to emerge 16-14 victors at Twickenham.
The hosts again had to overturn a half-time deficit, with Wales awarded a penalty try and Ioan Lloyd converting Alex Mann’s score to give the visitors a 14-5 lead after Ben Earl had crossed over.
Ollie Chessum and Ethan Roots were both sent to the sin bin as the home side’s indiscipline once again made life difficult in a nervy opening 16 minutes.
But Wales failed to register a point in the second half and lost a player of their own to the sin bin, with Mason Grady given his marching orders in the 70th minute. Meanwhile, England grew into the match as George Ford kicked two penalties either side of Fraser Dingwall’s 63rd-minute try.
England – who beat Italy in their previous outing – moved to the top of the championship table with the result, though defending champions Ireland could leapfrog Borthwick’s men with victory over Italy on Sunday.
‘I think it was a hard-fought game. I’m proud of the players and really pleased for the players,’ Borthwick told ITV Sport shortly after the final whistle.
‘It’s a team that stays in the fight, it’s a team that finds a way. It’s a young side.
‘We know we’ve got lots to learn, we’re going to grow together, but ultimately it’s a team that stays in the fight and we’re very proud of that.’
Borthwick said his players were able to remain ‘composed’ at the halfway stage despite being behind in the contest.
‘In so many ways, a lot of the stuff in the first half was pretty good,’ he added.
‘We had two players who left the field with sin bins and the penalty count at half-time was 6-0 to Wales. Putting up with all those things, the team have done pretty well.
‘At half-time we were very composed. The players were very clear in what needed to be done and there was a lot of belief that they would go and find a way.
‘We saw the depth of the squad in certain positions. Players came on and really added. Theo Dan came on and really added, Chandler [Cunningham-South] came on and really added, the same with Danny Care.
‘It’s great to have that level of depth.’
Warren Gatland praised Wales’ ‘character’ but felt there was plenty of room for improvement in their performance, with mistakes costing his young side in the second half.
‘We probably didn’t manage it as well as we could have. There were a couple of penalties that were pretty crucial against us.
‘But I’m proud of that performance. The players gave everything we asked for. We’re going to be a good team, it’s just going to take a little bit of time, so some players learning about game management and stuff and they learn it from those sorts of experiences.
‘We did some good things and things will hopefully tidy up as we go forward. Yeah, we’re disappointed but this is a young side that is going to continue to improve.’
The New Zealander added: ‘We scored a couple of tries and put them under some pressure which was positive.
‘But in the second half, giving away a soft penalty for being offside in front of the posts, and that’s probably the difference between the two teams. They’ve come here with a real kicking strategy and got some reward out of that.
‘I thought we showed some great character and there was a game there for us to win. I’m proud of the effort.’
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