England clinches valuable win over Wales at Twickenham in first warm-up match – Rugby News
England secured a hard fought victory of 23-19 over Wales in their first clash of the Rugby World Cup warm-up matches at Twickenham on August 6. Jonny Wilkinson was the man who boosted England with a much needed 13 points as he remained simply flawless with
his well directed kicks. Wilkinson kicked two conversions, a couple of drop goals and a penalty shot into Wales’ posts.
The Welsh side has competed well against the English but remained a little sluggish in both parts of the game. England scored two tries in the match whereas Wales produced three five pointers but still failed to win the clash.
It was Wilkinson who got the match underway for England on a penalty shot in the fifth minute. Wales has also started the match very nicely as George North put his side on the score board shortly after kick off. North scored the first try of the match in
just the 16th minute and was hailed by his team-mate Rhys Priestland on a conversion shot. Wales enjoyed a 7-3 lead over England until the 24th minute of the match. James Haskell had a good run in the field to open the account for England
on a try and Jonny Wilkinson regained a slight lead of 10-7.
The English side extended their lead to 13-7 at the interval as Wilkinson collected three points on a drop goal just before half-time. Both sides missed a number of opportunities to enhance their score during the first-half.
The second part of the game was even sluggish for both sides as a rusty game was seen after the interval. However, England kept itself a little ahead of their rivals and in the end bagged a well deserved victory over Wales. George North scored two tries
for Wales, Shane Williams one and Rhys Priestland kicked two conversions for his team. James Haskell and Manu Tuilagi also scored one each tries for England. However, Jonny Wilkinson was the major contributor in his team’s victory.
Both the sides played with following teams:
England: 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Matt Banahan, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Riki Flutey, 11 Mark Cueto, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Danny Care, 8 James Haskell, 7 Lewis Moody (capt), 6 Tom Croft, 5 Tom Palmer, 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Matt Stevens,
2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Alex Corbisiero.
Replacements: 16 Lee Mears, 17 David Wilson, 18 Mouritz Botha, 19 Tom Wood, 20 Richard Wigglesworth, 21 Charlie Hodgson, 22 Charlie Sharples.
Wales: 15 Rhys Priestland, 14 George North, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Sam Warburton (capt), 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Alun-Wyn Jones, 4 Brad Davies,
3 Craig Mitchell, 2 Huw Bennett, 1 Paul James.
Replacements: 16 Lloyd Burns, 17 Ryan Bevington, 18 Luke Charteris, 19 Ryan Jones, 20 Tavis Knoyle, 21 Scott Williams, 22 Morgan Stoddart.
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