Six Nations: Lancaster eyes title as England end their Triple Crown wait
ENGLAND 29 WALES 18
PROUD England coach Stuart Lancaster urged his players to refocus on this week’s Six Nations finale in Italy after they swept aside Wales yesterday at Twickenham to claim their first Triple Crown for 11 years.
First-half tries from scrum-half Danny Care and centre Luther Burrell, allied to the unerring boot of No10 Owen Farrell, were enough to avenge last year’s mauling in Cardiff, which cost England the title.
Again they will go into the final weekend with the trophy in sight, though they must win in Rome on Saturday and hope that Ireland slip up away to France. A resounding victory could see England eclipse Ireland even if they win in Paris, though Lancaster is anxious that his improving team concentrate less on the try count and more on simply getting the result.
“This gives us a shot going into next week,” he said. “We need a bit of luck with Ireland going to Paris. It’s a massive ask. We have to just focus on our own game and can’t focus on points.”
Lancaster called the triumph against a team boasting 12 British and Irish Lions “a massive scalp” and hailed not only a slice of revenge but also a successful attempt to conjure expansive rugby from his England side.
“We’ve tried to remove the fear of playing,” he added. “It’s nice to get the win to put last year’s result in Cardiff to bed. We lost fair and square on that day but this was our day and we deserved to win. I was really proud.”
Care set England on their way to a third successive win after just five minutes when he took a quick tap-penalty and surged through a napping Welsh defence to touch down.
A hat-trick of Leigh Halfpenny penalties kept Wales in touch until Burrell dived over in the corner to convert a delicate Billy Twelvetrees grubber kick.
Halfpenny and Farrell traded penalties as England failed to kill the game, despite Gethin Jenkins being sent to the sin-bin. They came close when Burrell homed in on the corner, only for Halfpenny, who dislocated his shoulder, to make a last-ditch tackle.