England were irresistible at the start but there was mayhem at the end after Manu Tuilagi was sent off, says Tom Fordyce.
Six Nations 2020: England narrowly beat Wales in fiery game at TwickenhamFor everything that made sense at Twickenham on a grey Saturday afternoon there was something that did not.
They had less possession than Wales, 36% to 64%. They made fewer metres and more than twice as many tackles. They missed 25 of them to Wales' 13. None of it mattered, because they had a lead of 14 points just before half-time and 17 going into the last five minutes. England held on then and they created their own anarchy in a first half with the wrecking-ball challenges of Tom Curry and Tuilagi and the spoiling and stealing of their team-mates in the second row and on the flanks. Maro Itoje might be the smoothest burglar since Danny Ocean, the long arms of the Lawes next to him the perfect complement.
If that was harsh on Tipuric, who finished off that score in addition to the one at the death, as well as Nick Tompkins, who began the attack from his own five-metre line, there was also little for Wayne Pivac to argue about afterwards but his opposite number's view on the Tuilagi red card. Wales's victories here in the past 15 years have all had something wonderfully impossible about them, from the comeback in 2008 in Warren Gatland's first game in charge to Scott Williams' robbery of Lawes in 2012 and then the most famous heist of all in the World Cup three years later.
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