Wales 19 - England 26: Chris Ashton gets off to flier

ENGLAND warranted their  first triumph at the Millennium Stadium in eight years, but two tries by Chris Ashton and a modest victory margin fell  well short of reflecting a  performance of considerable quality.

A precious away win which defiantly answered questions about their temperament set Martin Johnson’s side up superbly for the rest of the Six Nations Championship with three Twickenham Tests to follow before they finish in Ireland. Already, a Grand Slam is not a pipe dream.Imagine 74,500 people collectively hyperventilating and you get an idea of what the stadium was like, a tumultuous atmosphere as likely to undermine the Welsh as the English.

More so, as it turned out, when England scored the first try.

Putting their possession steadily through the phases reflected a calmness Welsh pre-match propaganda was intended to destroy. Instead, Wales’ defensive alignment was an invitation to Toby Flood.

Confronted by Paul James and Craig Mitchell, two props, Flood did not need to be invited to accelerate between them. Once that was done, Chris Ashton was unopposed and Flood had a simple conversion.

Here was the merit of allowing your rugby to do your talking.

After Wales coach Warren Gatland’s disobliging remarks about Dylan Hartley, it was hardly surprising that a Welsh crowd gave the England hooker a heartily unpleasant welcome.

Actually Jonny Wilkinson – not even in the XV – received much worse reception. But the whole point of Gatland’s attack on Hartley was to ensure everyone in Cardiff, and not only Gatland himself, piled the pressure on the player.

This was to exploit a supposedly suspect temperament but, as Hartley had optimistically indicated, was equally liable to inspire him to heights of performance which would make Gatland rather than Hartley look a mug.

The fact was the pressure was on Gatland, whose team were without a victory in eight Tests – even though the coach has had his contract extended to the 2015 World Cup

This is not on the basis of recent achievement and Gatland admits he could be sacked if this year’s global tournament goes awry for Wales.

It would also help if Wales did better in the Six Nations than they have since Gatland guided them to the Grand Slam.

In the event, Hartley repeatedly hit his targets in the line-out thereby refuting Gatland’s hopeful charge that he might be a choker. The England players took this to be an attack on them all and duly responded.

James Hook and Stephen Jones had missed penalties for Wales before Ashton’s try and the importance of these lapses was shown when a Flood penalty augmented England’s lead.

Eventually Jones pulled one back for Wales, who had done the England thing by taking too long to get into their stride. Once they did England kept them out only at the expense of a yellow card to Louis Deacon. The lock prevented a Welsh try by going over the top of a ruck, Jones’ second penalty being a poor reward given how the attack had been illegally halted.

And then, down a man, England went straight down the field for Flood’s second penalty.

England had been impressive in holding on when a man short, but having preserved a seven-point lead at the interval they then needed to carry on similarly once Deacon’s return restored them to a full complement.

Instead, Jones had another penalty almost as soon as the second half had begun, though it turned out to give more false promise as moments later it was Wales’ turn to be reduced to 14 when Mitchell insinuated himself on the wrong side of a ruck.

Television picked out a trip by Jonathan Davies on Ashton while Wales were trying to run down the clock. The seven-man pack also hung on at a scrum on their line, but finally it was the line-out that was decisive with Mitchell’s time running out.

So much for Gatland’s grenade. Hartley found Tom Palmer and after James Haskell and Palmer had made ground along the threequarters it went, with Mark Cueto providing Ashton with another scoring pass.

Wales were back to 15 for the restart after Flood’s conversion but, needing now to score two converted tries just to level the scores, there was no evidence that their attacking rugby could pierce the England defence.

Wales went across rather than down the pitch until they belatedly make the breakthrough when Stephen Jones threw an exquisite pass which put Davies into a hole.

Davies contrived to put the last pass behind Morgan Stoddart, but Stoddart had room to turn before reaching the line. Jones obliged with the conversion.

The frenzy mounted when James Hook added his penalty to Jones’ three, but ended when replacement Wilkinson landed one more English penalty to leave Wales without a win in eight Tests, a dire record for Gatland and his team.