England vs Wales match report: Five-try England cruise past Wales challenge despite George Ford's kicking nightmare

England 27 Wales 13: England scored 17 unanswered points in the second half to head to Australia with momentum, but Ford missed six kicks to cap a woeful day for the fly-half

George Ford missed six of his seven kicks during England's 27-13 win over Wales (Getty)

Five tries from punchy finishing by England won this pre-tour Test against a Wales team who were pulled apart in the line-out and unable to produce their customary power in the back row. Only the woeful goal-kicking of George Ford struck a discordant note from an English viewpoint with some in the near-capacity Twickenham crowd booing the Bath fly-half’s extraordinary six misses in seven attempts.

On a warm afternoon of screaming lungs and sweaty backs, Wales were close to full strength in most departments while England lacked 10 Saracens and Exeter players who had been occupied with Saturday’s Premiership final plus Ben Te’o of Leinster and Harlequins’ Chris Robshaw and Kyle Sinckler from the 32-man squad who are going on tour to Australia this week.

Wales took the lead with a first try in his ninth international for the loosehead prop Rob Evans. A line-out caught by Ross Moriarty 15 metres from the England goalline was taken on by Jamie Roberts, Taulupe Faletau, Alun Wyn Jones and Samson Lee before Evans, in his second involvement in the move, flopped over from Rhys Webb’s popped pass.

Dan Biggar converted and added a penalty to have Wales 10-0 up in this third Twickenham meeting of the old rivals this season, after a Welsh won in the World Cup and England’s success on the way to a Six Nations Grand Slam.

Non-competition matches have happened before in the 135-year-old series – there were pre-World Cup warm-ups in 2003, 2007 and 2011 – but this was nakedly a cash-cow fixture partly designed to fund the English Premiership clubs’ claim for compensation for the disruption caused by the global tournament eight months ago.

England celebrate after Luther Burrell crashes over for their first try (Getty)

If it also served as an essential loosener before England’s three Tests in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, and Wales’s similar itinerary away to the world champions New Zealand, with a midweek date against the Chiefs thrown in, then it soon became clear that Ford badly needs to tighten up his goal-kicking. The No.10 whose dad Mike was recently dismissed as Bath’s head coach missed a penalty and two conversions in the first half, to worsen an already sketchy 72 per cent success rate in Tests. The crowd reaction highlighted how today’s marksmen are expected to hit the target.

Anthony Watson reaches over his head to score England's second try (Getty)

England were made much happier by a try from their first set-piece strike move. A penalty kicked for touch, rather than points, in the 20th minute led to a catch at the front by Harlequins’ Jack Clifford, who was No 8 in a rejigged back row alongside James Haskell and the New Zealand-born debutant Teimana Harrison. The ball came out of a spinning maul for Luther Burrell, on his recall after missing the World Cup and Grand Slam, to crash past Biggar, who seemed unduly surprised at the big inside centre’s running angle. The Welsh back row, lacking a true openside in the absence of the injured Sam Warburton and Justin Tipuric, was nowhere to be seen. And it would soon be further depleted by Dan Lydiate limping off.

Biggar replied with a penalty before England tried a repeat line-out routine with Clifford, only for Marland Yarde as first receiver from the maul to be well held. Wales booted clear but the counter from England was effective and passes from Ford and Jonathan Joseph to Anthony Watson on the left sent the Bath wing past Liam Williams’s weak tackle and scrabbling on his knees to claim a 10th try in 21 Tests with an adroit finish on his back as George North tried to tackle. It was arguable the ball was grounded short by Watson but the unconverted score left Wales 13-10 ahead at half-time.

Ben Youngs scores England's third try (Getty)

Two tries in three minutes early in the second half flipped the scoreline around. From Joe Launchbury’s line-out take, Ben Youngs at scrum-half dummied past Scott Baldwin and a bunch of other red jerseys for a try that Ford again failed to convert. Then a left-to-right pass by Biggar was batted down by Dan Cole for England and scooped up by Clifford, from behind the prop, to race at high pace from the halfway line for his first Test try. Wales and Biggar in particular complained loud and long that Cole’s touch had been forwards or illegal but the television match official Simon McDowell saw “nothing clear and obvious”. Ford’s easy conversion through the posts was cheered to the rafters but there were more melodramatic howls of anguish to come, and it is near impossible to envisage Ford being selected ahead of Saracens’ Owen Farrell in Australia in such circumstances. Farrell either has to be the starting No.10 or to continue as Ford’s inside centre.

Jack Dlifford touches down England's fourth try (Getty)

Meanwhile Launchbury and Courtney Lawes in England’s second row got on with making the most of their chance to cover for Saracens’ Grand Slam and club double winners Maro Itoje and George Kruis. An energetic charge-down by Launchbury helped England towards a midfield turnover that finished with Lawes handing Roberts off and giving a scoring pass to an exultant Yarde. The conversion from Ford hit a post, and a bizarre choice by Dylan Hartley to go for goal with a penalty with seven minutes remaining only piled on the fly-half’s discomfort as yet another kick flew wide.

Marland Yarde dives over to score the fifth try for England (Getty)

By the end England had given further first caps to front-rowers Ellis Genge and Tommy Taylor, and Exeter inside-centre Ollie Devoto. It felt like Eddie Jones’s squad were taking another confident step into the future while Wales were doing no more than treading water.

Scorers:

England: Tries: Burrell, Watson, Youngs, Clifford, Yarde; Conversion: Ford.

Wales: Try: Evans; Conversion: Biggar; Penalties: Biggar 2.

Teams

England: M Brown (Harlequins); M Yarde (Harlequins), J Joseph (Bath), L Burrell (Northampton Saints), A Watson (Bath); G Ford (Bath), B Youngs (Leicester Tigers); M Mullan (Wasps), D Hartley (Northampton Saints, capt), D Cole (Leicester Tigers), J Launchbury (Wasps), C Lawes (Northampton Saints), T Harrison (Northampton Saints), J Haskell (Wasps), J Clifford (Harlequins).

Replacements: T Taylor (Sale Sharks) for Hartley, 77 mins; E Genge (Leicester Tigers) for Mullan, 66; P Hill (Northampton Saints) for Cole, 69; D Attwood (Bath) for Lawes, 63; M Kvesic (Gloucester) for Haskell, 63; D Care (Harlequins) for Youngs, 56; O Devoto (Bath) for Ford, 76; E Daly (Wasps) for Joseph, 66.

Wales: Liam Williams (Scarlets); G North (Northampton Saints), S Williams (Scarlets), J Roberts (Harlequins), H Amos (Newport Gwent Dragons); D Biggar (Ospreys), R Webb (Ospreys); R Evans (Scarlets), S Baldwin (Ospreys), S Lee (Scarlets), J Ball (Scarlets), AW Jones (Ospreys), R Moriarty (Gloucester), D Lydiate (Ospreys, capt), T Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons).

Replacements: K Dacey (Cardiff Blues) for Baldwin, 56; G Jenkins (Cardiff Blues) for Evans, 56; R Jones (Scarlets) for Lee, 63; J Turnbull (Cardiff Blues) for AW Jones, 58; J King (Ospreys) for Lydiate, 24; Lloyd Williams (Cardiff Blues) for Webb, 66; R Priestland (Bath) for Biggar, 56; G Anscombe (Cardiff Blues) for S Williams, 56.

Referee: M Mitrea (Italy).

Official attendance: 81,128.