Analysis of Wales game England – Rugby news
Chris Ashton was the star of the night in the very important match between England and Wales. England was driven to a 26-19 victory by Ashton in the RBS Six Nations match at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Chris Ashton was assisted by Toby Flood ensuring
the victory of the England for the first time in Millennium Stadium in last eight years.
The match became more special when motorway coming towards the stadium was blocked, as fans were making their way to the 7:45 pm kick off. Traffic jams on the road were nothing as compared to the online traffic witnessed that day. A figure of online and
sports channel subscribed 7.1 million viewers was reported by BBC. Their own broadcast from Cardiff witnessed a 22.8% share in rugby viewership. Last year the viewership for an England v Wales Six Nations’ fixture was reported to be 5.8 million.
England savoured a victory against the pretournament hot favourites and downsized all the criticism that they had been facing recently. Wales was strongly believed to have won this match and thrash the English squad with their more experienced side, but
we all witnessed a totally different result. So, what did we deduce from this specific situation? Here are a few points that we erudite concerning England, Wales and Six Nations from this match.
Chris Ashton can be lethal at times. The young Northampton Saints’ winger Chris Ashton is developing in to a real danger. He is making his repute as a lethal runner after his tries against Australia and now the two decisive tries against
Wales. It is a noteworthy accomplishment for a player who just entered rugby union after playing for a long time in rugby league.
Welsh back line both attacking and defensive. Morgan Stoddart the Welsh wing scored a well deserving try for his side and stood firm in is back line. Jonathan Davies also made some astonishing run on the field and had a few eye catching
attacking moves.
England can be a dangerous guest. Even though Wales and the sea of Welsh fans gave a conventional welcome to Martin Johnson and his team, the English side silenced the Millennium Stadium with their memorable performance. The gutsy performance
by Toby Flood resulted into a 13 minute try by Ashton which was a breaking and shocking point for Welsh fans.
Davies went unpunished. Davies, who was playing at centre tripped Ashton in second half and was lucky to play on unnoticed by the referees and their assistant. The match official might have to say something about it in the coming days.
Jonny Wilkinson is still a silent warrior. The English hero and legend, Jonny Wilkinson was welcomed by the crowd with loads of boos and noise. Though he kept his calm and showed his skill by tackling in defence and scoring a crucial and
a fine penalty at the end of the game.
Gatland should not make hasty decisions. Warren Gatland made James Hook play at full back and consigned Lee Byrne to the bench. Hook could not show his best skills at the assigned position and failed to impress. Stephen ones, who was called
in the first 15 also did not perform well either.
Dylan Hartley kept his cool. After consistent attempts of Gatland pressurizing Hartley through his harsh statements in media, everybody expected him to react as expected. But he remained calm and collected all the line-outs perfectly and
gave a hard working performance in scrum.
Foden kept his words. Full back, Foden Jones kept his words after what he said controversially that it’s time for ‘big brother to thrash the small brother’. He converted his words into real time actions after collecting the ball at kick
off and thumped Stephen Jones to the earth. Throughout the match, Foden was eager to join the attacking line and showed some tremendous skills.
England hoping to achieve Grand Slam this year. After winning this crucial match England has next three fixtures at home against France, Scotland and Italy. Martin Johnson strongly believes that his side will be accomplishing the task of
winning all three.
Wales and the Wooden Spoon. After this defeat, Wales must win at least two matches to avoid being awarded by Wooden Spoon. Warren Gatland’s side has yet to face Scotland, Italy and France. All the matches are difficult and decisive for Wales’
survival at Six Nations.
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