England's backs to the forefront in record try fest

8:00 AM By TIM GLOVER

When England were engaged in their successful hat-trick of autumn internationals at Twickenham, Clive Woodward remarked: "We are going to give somebody a bloody good hiding very soon." And so it came to pass yesterday when Wales suffered a new millennium experience –
a humiliation and a record 15-44 loss to the English in Cardiff.

England scored six tries and it could have been more. They ran Wales ragged and then some, and they made it look all so easy. Woodward's team were sharper, cleverer and slicker but, above all, they were running in a different race.

Whereas the English were in a sprint, Wales, by comparison, looked as if they were engaged in an egg-and-spoon contest.

Will Greenwood led the onslaught with three thoroughbred tries and the Welsh had nobody who could even live in the centre's shadow.

The ease with which some of England's tries were scored beggared belief, but once again they are on the trail of a Grand Slam.

England, who last completed a whitewash of the opposing countries in 1995, have been denied at the death in the last two seasons, but with three home matches to come from their next four, they appear to have the Six Nations at their mercy.

As for Wales, Graham Henry's selection, with a conspicuous lack of speed merchants, had damage limitation written all over it, and he failed miserably even in that modest ambition.

If Henry was not feeling the pressure before, he is now, and two-and-a-half years into his five-year contract, the New Zealander suffered the most uncomfortable afternoon of his career. So did his adopted country.

After surviving intense pressure in the first 10 minutes, England hit Wales with a combination of punches that stunned and silenced a nation.

In perfect conditions, Wales began in ultra-aggressive fashion, Scott Gibbs flattening Mike Catt from the kick-off. It enabled Wales to mount a series of attacks which stretched but did not not breach the English defence.

When Gibbs, to break the pattern, put in a chip to the left-hand corner, it resulted in a race for the touchdown between Dafydd James, Iain Balshaw and Ben Cohen. The bounce managed to confuse all three and although James raised his arm in claiming a try, it was a desperately close thing.

The referee, Joel Dumé, called for a decision from the video referee, Didier Mené, and he confirmed that it was an English hand that got the first touch.

After England had replaced Dan Luger, who had a shoulder injury, with Austin Healey, Neil Jenkins had a chance to put his side ahead with a long-range penalty in the ninth minute but was just wide. Two minutes later England came off the ropes with a vengeance.

It all started with an innocuous kick into the Wales 22 from Jonny Wilkinson. Scott Quinnell could have passed inside or found a safe touch, but instead the No 8 kicked aimlessly downfield into the hands of Balshaw and the full-back made ground down the right before combining with Healey and Catt. When the latter threw out a perfectly judged long pass to Wilkinson on the left, the stand-off sold a dummy and raced towards the Welsh 22 before finding Will Greenwood with an inside pass, and the centre went over unopposed at the posts.

Wales had hardly drawn breath when they fell for another sucker punch, this time after Rob Howley had put up an indifferent high ball towards the Wales 10-metre line, where Cohen safely gathered to set up another incisive and deadly attack. The ball was swiftly channelled to the right, where once again Balshaw's terrific pace split the Wales defence. Although the full-back was caught by Mark Taylor close to the line, he popped the ball up to Greenwood, who dived over for his second try within the space of three minutes.

Although Jenkins was successful with a penalty after 18 minutes, Gibbs conceded the same to Wilkinson when he attempted to run out of defence.

The only shock to the English system came after 22 minutes, by which time they were leading 15-3, when Howley capitalised on a turnover, sold a dummy, beat Phil Vickery and raced 40 yards for a try in the right-hand corner. It was the closest Wales came to stemming the tide.

England scored try number three on the half-hour when, after sharp work by Wilkinson and Cohen, Matt Dawson, as is his wont, ran a tapped penalty very quickly – the referee still had his arm raised for the initial offence – and very close to the Wales line. Dawson could not believe his luck when he managed to slip through four defenders.

After Jenkins had hit an upright with a penalty attempt Dawson delivered another shattering blow to Wales in the 36th minute when he picked the ball up at a ruck, found himself in splendid isolation and set off for the line. He had Stephen Jones to beat and he did that easily with a little shimmy to touch down beneath the posts. Wilkinson's conversion made it 8-29 at half-time and a surreal air was hanging over the Millennium Stadium.

Greenwood completed his hat-trick a minute after the re-start, touching down after handing off Taylor and following incisive midfield play from Catt, Healey and Cohen. England should have had another a few minutes later when Balshaw, after winning a thrilling kick and chase, knocked the ball on in the act of scoring.

Wilkinson added a second penalty before Cohen, who had been a handful for the Welsh defence, sliced clean through the midfield for try number six and not a hand was laid on him.

There was no consolation for Wales, although they did manage to stop the bleeding and an electric break by Howley – the only Welshman to keep pace with the opposition – led to a try for Quinnell.

Jenkins, who following his earlier penalty had been on 999, a number that Wales might have been tempted to dial, finally broke through the 1,000 points mark in international rugby with the conversion.