England’s winning run rolls on to 12 consecutive matches in some style, but even the most ardent among the Twickenham faithful may have found this a somewhat uncomfortable watch. This was a contest in name only, as one-sided a game as any Six Nations fixture in recent memory, and more than a little dispiriting, too. Welsh visits to this grand old ground are usually forged on the ferocity of rivalry and genuine enmity – there was none of that here, helpless prey gobbled up by a side increasingly proving themselves as voracious predators towards the top of the Test food chain.
If this had been showing on the Discovery channel rather than ITV, viewers might have looked away. In last year’s edition in Cardiff, England had produced one of their most complete showings to take a beleaguered, battered Wales to pieces but they did not have to find that sort of fluency or form here. The visitors were ill-disciplined, ill-matched and ill-prepared, and got what they deserved. Two years ago, even on their way to a wooden spoon, Wales had come to Twickenham and put up an almighty fight, scrapping for everything on a wretched day and almost emerging still standing. Though there was something of a second-half rally, this was leagues below that level. How the not-so-mighty have fallen.
Amid it all, credit to England, ruthless in the first half particularly. Their margin of victory did not swell to quite that which they achieved in 2025 but that felt a final flourish on a coming-of-age campaign, rather than the first step towards the grander goals they harbour in this championship. Sterner opposition are to come – not least a hurting Scotland in the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield next Saturday – and a sag in the second half will have to be avoided, but Steve Borthwick could be pleased with a job comprehensively done, led by Henry Arundell’s hat-trick.
One would have thought that Steve Tandy’s instruction to his relatively callow team might have been to work their way steadily into the contest and not give England easy access in the first 10 minutes. If that was the message, it was not one heeded in an opening passage pockmarked by Welsh errors. First Louis Rees-Zammit was charged down by Sam Underhill, with a subsequent offside penalty allowing George Ford to slot the opening three points, before successive obstruction infringements by Dafydd Jenkins (at an attacking maul) and Archie Griffin, on an English kick chaser, allowed the hosts to flip the field from their own five-metre. Arundell was soon scooting into the left corner onto Ford’s flat pass.
By the 17th minute, Wales had already conceded a sufficient tally of penalties for Nicky Smith to be sent to the sin bin for persistent offences; fellow front-rower, and captain, Dewi Lake followed him moments later for hauling down a maul. A Ford cross-kick followed; Arundell again the target and scorer. A few minutes later, the wing vacated his space on the left edge, denying himself a 24-minute hat-trick, with Ben Earl providing the finishing touches instead.
Nine minutes later, though, Fraser Dingwall latched on to an errant Ben Thomas toss and handed on to Arundell to complete his hat-trick. Everything that could go wrong had for Wales – when Lake tried to take a quick tap five metres from the English line and failed to make contact, it rather summed it up.
One felt for the hooker and his men amongst it all. Lake may be Gloucester-bound at the end of the season but he was one of four Ospreys in the matchday 23 here still digesting the news of the side’s apparent impending demise. Others within the squad, both young and old, may wonder what the knock-on effects may be in a domestic structure already in turmoil. Tandy’s wide eyes betrayed the thoughts of a man realising what he had let himself in for – his Six Nations debut as a head coach had not gone as planned.
England, it should be said, possessed an accuracy and composure that contrasted starkly. Granted plenty of penalties to punt, and taking other opportunities, Ford controlled affairs with trademark calm, while Tommy Freeman provided real punch from 13, even if his distributing game remains a work in progress. Ollie Chessum and Alex Coles ran both attacking and defensive lineouts well in the absence of regular caller Maro Itoje.
The regular captain, left on the bench after a late arrival into camp following the funeral of his mother, arrived to a huge roar on the 50-minute mark but immediately departed again, sent to the sin bin as England’s discipline slipped. Josh Adams gathered and grounded a Dan Edwards cross kick to get Wales, welcomely if belatedly, on the board.
A tough afternoon for Thomas continued when he became the third Welshman shown yellow, and he soon had company as Taine Plumtree’s desperate tackle on Henry Pollock was deemed high. A try-saver, but penalty-try conceder. Pollock’s introduction had seen Earl re-assigned into the midfield and England attacked with gambol and glee in the final minutes. Although profligacy and penalties, with Tom Curry binned for a tackle off the ball, cost them a couple more scores, Freeman crossed in the final minutes to make it seven tries. Wales, though, had long since been finished off.
