CARDIFF :England produced one of their best performances for years to crush hapless Wales by a record 68-14 scoreline on Saturday, finishing the Six Nations on a high and retaining a chance of winning the title should France fail to beat Scotland later.
The visitors ran in 10 tries to easily surpass their previous biggest victory margin in Cardiff, a 43-9 success in a 2003 World Cup warm-up.
“We challenged them to go out and play big and they did exactly that,” said coach Steve Borthwick, whose radical team selection was vindicated by a display of impressive power and finishing.
“This has the makings of a very good team, we just need to keep at the process,” Borthwick added.
England have 20 points after winning four matches for the first time since taking the title in 2020 but France, on 16, will almost certainly top the standings with any sort of Paris victory in Paris due to their huge points-difference advantage.
Ireland finished on 19 after a 22-17 win over Italy and Wales will come last for the second year in a row after their 17th successive defeat – a record for a Tier One nation since the game went professional.
ITOJE TRY
There had been talk around Cardiff of nerves as Wales looked to a succession of historic last-day wins to deny England titles but the mood of optimism disappeared after two minutes when Maro Itoje stretched out a long arm for the first try.
A great pass by Fin Smith set up Tom Roebuck, on his first start, to claim the second after 11 minutes
Wales fullback Blair Murray had a try chalked off and was denied again by a desperate tap-tackle from hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie but Wales did get on the board through centre Ben Thomas.
They made a mess of the restart, however, and England showed terrific handling to send centre Tommy Freeman over. That meant he has scored a try in all five matches in the tournament – the first England player to do so and only the second from any country after France’s Philippe Bernat-Salles in 2001.
England were on fire and scored two more tries within two minutes as slick passing and hard running sent Chandler Cunningham-South and, on his 50th appearance, prop Will Stuart over as the visitors reached halftime with a commanding 33-7 lead.
England claimed their fifth try after a Welsh pass bounced off Elliot Daly’s head into the path of scrumhalf Alex Mitchell who kicked ahead and scored.
Debutant 20-year-old replacement Henry Pollock flanker got the seventh and Joe Heyes the eighth as the Welsh defence disintegrated.
Thomas grabbed his second try in a brief Welsh flurry but England poured on the power as Pollock and Cunningham-South both claimed second tries and Wales shipped their most points ever at Cardiff, having lost 55-25 to New Zealand in 2022.
“We have been building towards this I feel like each game we were showing a different side to us and we are happy to end like this,” England captain Itoje said.
“The thing about consistency is you have to be consistent even when results aren’t going your way and I applaud the team because even when they weren’t and we were getting outside noise we kept on being consistent.
“Regardless of what France or Scotland do, it doesn’t matter. We did our job today.”
To the chagrin of the gloomy home fans, “Swing Low” rang around the stadium at fulltime, rubbing in the humiliation on a day and season to forget for a nation who have not won a match since the 2023 World Cup.
Wales captain Jac Morgan, who has been immense in a losing cause all championship, said that England had been clinical.
“It’s tough, everyone’s gutted but you can’t knock the effort and commitment and it will come hopefully,” Morgan said.
