Wales 12-48 England - Harris era underway
By Chris O'Brien
October 18 2009
Wales showed plenty of battling qualities at the Brewery Field on Saturday evening but were still comfortably beaten 48-12 by England. However, despite the losing start for Iestyn Harris, the Saders assistant boss will be pleased by his side's hard-working and determined display which marked a huge improvement on last year's 74-0 body blow at Doncaster.
England were heavily fancied
to seal a rout in Bridgend. An inexperienced Welsh line-up, boasting an average
age of less than 23, faced a daunting prospect as they faced an England side
who are gearing up to face France, Australia and world champions New Zealand in
the coming weeks.
Many
foresaw a repeat of England's
Doncaster hammering of last year, but Harris' Wales got off to an amazing start
and took the lead after only two minutes to the surprise of the 3,249 Brewery
Field crowd. The hosts were handed a fresh set of six after England spilled a long-range kick, and Wales, with the
Prince of Wales's feathers back on their shirts, took advantage as Craig
Kopczak spun over in Adrian Morley's tackle right in the corner.
Predictably,
England
quickly fought back. An error from
promising youngster Elliot Kear saw England snatch the ball only yards
from the line. Ben Westwood passed wide for Sam Tomkins and he powered over the
line to restore parity.
Wales' valiant defending
was let down by a handful of individual errors. The visitors were soon ahead
with the superb Sam Tomkins cutting through the Welsh defence, showing
full-back Kear a clean pair of heels to cross the white line underneath the
posts.
Tomkins
was in inspired form and he masterminded England's next two tries - setting
up Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Sam Burgess, before Welshman Lloyd White
banged over an impressive long-range penalty to make it 6-20 at the interval.
Having
started the game so well, Wales
then stunned everyone again by bagging the first try of the second period, with
the conversion reducing the deficit to only eight points. Fox's knock-on gave Wales the ball in their own half, and then an
offside call against England
gave the hosts a fresh set from only yards out. England weren't ready; Ben Watson
tapped the ball and charged over. Superb stuff, and White duly obliged with the
boot.
Perhaps
- just perhaps - the Welsh, handed a 56-point start by the bookmakers, sensed that
one of the sport's biggest ever upsets could be on the cards. However, superior
fitness eventually told and England
slowly started to dominate proceedings on their way to racking up a further 28
points. Tony Smith's men wore down a tiring Wales and bossed the final twenty
minutes.
The
result was put beyond doubt when a neat move allowed Hull winger Tom Briscoe to cross, before further
efforts from Sean O'Loughlin, Morley, Briscoe and Tomkins made the result
comfortable.
Wales can be relatively
pleased with their display. For an hour at least, Harris' men were extremely
competitive and had England
slightly worried at times. We must now build on this against Ireland at Sardis Road and hopefully secure an
appearance in European Nations Cup final day at the Brewery Field on November 8th.
Good
effort Wales.
Full
Time - Wales 12-48 England
Attendance
- 3,249
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However I guess Iestyn's aim should realistically be to aim for (initially) 5th spot behind the current "big 4" with a view to taking on France some time. However until the RL addresses the switching of allegiances I fear that a top 4 spot may be beyond us as we keep losing the better players back to England.
Hopefully, Harris can bring some 90s-style respectability back to Wales RL though.
To my knowledge, we've not really done anything that impressive since 2000. That's when we were 20 minutes away from dumping the Aussies out of the WC.
This European Nations Cup is massive. Win it, and we'll be involved in the next Four Nations regardless of how France perform in the coming weeks. That seems a little unfair on the French to me, surely the bottom club from the Four Nations should be pulled out?
Now, Serbia are ranked above us in the latest rankings. But just got thumped 82-0 by Ireland in the opening group game. 485 turned up to watch it in Tullarmore. That tells me that either Ireland are suddenly awesome, or we should win well in Serbia. That'll set up a huge game with the Irish at Sardis Road on February 1st. It's on Sky Sports. If we beat Serbia and Ireland, we'll then have to beat Scotland (82-0 winners over Italy on the weekend) or Lebanon at the Brewery Field in the final.
Hopefully, Harris will have a slightly stronger XIII to call upon than the one that started against England. With the bulk of the lads now having Super League experience under their belts, hopefully we can expect big things....