Six Nations: England withstand Wales comeback and nervy finale to maintain title hopes

Wales' Taine Basham, left and England's Alex Dombrandt vie for the ball during the Six Nations rugby union match between England and Wales. Photo / AP

Wales' realistic ambitions of retaining its Six Nations rugby title were extinguished with a 23-19 loss to England despite a three-try fightback in the second half by the champion at Twickenham on Saturday.

An 18-point haul from flyhalf Marcus Smith underpinned England's second straight win of the championship that kept alive the title chances of Eddie Jones' team ahead of the hardest finish possible — games against Ireland and then away to first-placed France in the last two rounds.

Wales couldn't recover from falling 17-0 behind, thanks to four first-half penalties from Smith and a try from No. 8 Alex Dombrandt, who collected an overthrown lineout by the Welsh and barged over the line.

Wales had been dominated up front until that point, giving away sloppy penalties as a result, but gained a foothold in the match when winger Josh Adams ran onto a flat pass from scrumhalf Tomos Williams and raced over in the left corner in the 54th.

And when center Nick Tompkins was fed by Williams in a central position and barreled over from close range six minutes later, Dan Biggar's subsequent conversion meant the teams were separated by just five points.

Smith snuffed out any danger by kicking his fifth and sixth penalties of the game in the final 12 minutes, allowing England to back up its 33-0 win in Italy two weeks ago.

Wales' Alex Cathbert, left is tackled by England's Maro Itoje during the Six Nations rugby union match between England and Wales. Photo / AP

A third Welsh try of the second half, by replacement scrumhalf Kieran Hardy, at least earned the visitors a losing bonus point to take back over the Severn Bridge. And there was a desperate final, 16-phase attack in injury time that reached the halfway line only to end, much to the relief of England's fans.

Its opening-round loss to Scotland at Murrayfield is likely to be a setback that will cost England a shot at the title but at least the dream is still alive ahead of Ireland's visit to Twickenham in two weeks.

England is four points behind France, which beat Scotland earlier Saturday for a third straight win in its Grand Slam quest.As for the Welsh, they have lost two of their opening three games of a title defense that always looked tough owing to a string of injuries to key players, particularly captain Alun Wyn Jones.

Taulupe Faletau returned from a long-standing ankle injury and played the full game but it wasn't enough for Wales.

Scrumhalf Ben Youngs came on as a second-half replacement to break the record for most test caps for England — 115 — that he shared with retired prop Jason Leonard.