England v Wales live: Arundell grabs hat-trick as hosts thrash hopeless Six Nations rivals
England 48-7 Wales: Steve Borthwick’s side ran in seven tries but barely got out of second gear as Wales struggled to compete
England demolished Wales 48-7 to spark what they hope will be a Six Nations title charge on a day that showed the current chasm between the sides.
Wales haven’t won a Six Nations match since 2023, picking up back-to-back wooden spoons, and on the evidence produced at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, it is hard to make a compelling case that they’ll avoid a third straight winless camapign. They were outfought and outclassed by an England side that barely needed to get out of second gear to record a big win and will have real ambitions of a first Six Nations title since 2020.
George Ford pulled the strings in a man-of-the-match display at No 10, recalled winger Henry Arundell cruised in for a hat-trick, while Ben Earl, Tom Roebuck and Tommy Freeman also crossed in addition to a penalty try.
Into the category of small mercies, goes the fact that Wales’s margin of defeat was fewer than the 54 points of last year and Josh Adams’ second-half try ensured they weren't nilled in the fixture for the first time since 1992 but this won't be a day they remember fondly.
Relive all the action with our live blog below:
Henry Arundell compared to England legend after Six Nations hat-trick against Wales
Henry Arundell has been compared to England legend Jonny May after blitzing his way to a hat-trick in his side’s demolition of Wales in the Six Nations.
Flying winger Arundell completed his treble in the first half of the 48-7 thrashing of Steve Tandy’s beleaguered team as England kickstarted what they hope will be campaign that leads to a first Six Nations title since 2020.
The 23-year-old now has 12 tries in 13 matches for his country, with this his second hat-trick following a five-try haul against Chile in the 2023 World Cup.
Henry Arundell compared to England legend after Six Nations hat-trick against Wales
Steve Borthwick reflects on Henry Arundell performance
England coach Steve Borthwick and captain Jamie George are in for their press conference now.
Borthwick is asked about the impact of hat-trick hero Henry Arundell and was effusive in his praise.
“Henry is a player who has incredible ability running with the ball,” explained Borthwick. “His ability to find the try line is excellent but what I’ve been impressed by is his attitude to improve other aspects.
“He has worked exceptionally hard on other areas of his game since the autumn internationals and he has come back to the Six Nations an even better player.
“We have a great level of experience and we have good young players emerging, Henry is one of those.”
England captain, Jamie George: 'I feel a huge amount of pride'
England's captain Jamie George speaking to ITV: "I feel a huge amount of pride, we had a good couple of weeks build-up, we focused on ourselves today and we were the team we wanted to be.
"It's always interesting the first game of a tournament, you want to go out and set the story. We are starting from new and we want to show what we are about. We want to push and get better at that.
"You learn from what you did well and what you didn't do well. We gave a lot of penalties away, so there is plenty to learn."
Steve Tandy 'bitterly disappointed' with performance
Tandy has told the press conference that he’s bitterly disappointed with the result and the discipline in particular.
“We’re bitterly disappointed,” said the Wales coach. “There is no getting away from that. The first half, the ill-discipline once again cost us.
“We didn’t get any foothold in the game, we were inaccurate around the set piece, we couldn’t get any momentum. I am bitterly disappointed."
Dewi Lake: 'We've let ourselves down'
Dewi Lake and Steve Tandy have come in for their press conference at Allianz Stadium. And captain Lake hasn’t held back about the performance.
“We’ve let ourselves down and we’ve let people down,” said Lake.
“We spoke all week about what we need to do and what we need to produce and we didn’t do it. There’s no other way to say it really. We’re massively disappointed with what we put on the field today.”
What would he say to the fans head of France next week? “Every voice matters to us at the minute,” added Lake. “Every fan in a seat that can get behind us.
“We know we’ll be better next week. We spoke a lot about getting people on their feet, exciting a nation and we didn’t do it today. But there’s four more games in this tournament and we’ll be better than that.”
Wales head coach Steve Tandy to ITV:
Wales head coach Steve Tandy to ITV:
"We're really frustrated. Through the autumn and working with the group, I've loved it. But we’re more disappointed with ourselves today.
"Today, a lot of what happened was self-inflicted.
"We felt we were in a good place, but to lose when having four yellow cards and being very inaccurate with the ball, you are always going to fall behind on the scoreboard.
"It’s part of the game. And part of our journey of where we need to go. We are where we are for a reason.
"Ultimately, we’re really disappointed with our performance tonight. England are in a really good spot, bit we’re bitterly disappointed."
Henry Arundell speaking to ITV:
England's hat-trick scorer Henry Arundell to ITV:
"Absolutely [this is why he came back from club rugby in France]. It's special playing for England. To beat Wales at home is amazing.
"They were probably tap ins, but a hat-trick is a hat-trick!
"You've got to have that hunger to score tries if you're a winger. There's a bit of ego there.
"We're happy obviously, but if we want to be the best team in the world, we have to set high standards. And there's frustration we left some points out there."
Excellent seven-try performance from England
England 48-7 Wales
Wales captain, Dewi Lake speaking to ITV:
“We’re massively disappointed in ourselves.
"In what we said we were going to do, what we practiced, we didn’t perform it today.
"We’ve got to be disappointed in ourselves. We can’t expect things to go our way all the time. We have to make it happen.
"We’re not a side who are going to get the rub of the green or the 50:50s at the moment. We have to be squeaky clean, and weren’t.
"We played large amounts of the game with 13 men. Our discipline let us down massively today."
Man of the match, George Ford speaking to ITV:
“Delighted with the result. by and large the performance was good but still some frustration. We wanted to start with a decent performance and we did that.
“The start of a Test match is always important, you want to put your stamp on it, and the boys did that well. We are just trying to put bits of our game together.
“The more attacking chances we create, hopefully the more we take. It is always tough [going away to Scotland] and we are taking each game as it comes. We will review this game and look forward to going up to Scotland next week.”
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