‘At times we were immaculate’: England good enough for long enough to put Six Nations in reach

Itoje starred as England beat Wales 25-21 at Twickenham on Saturday to put one hand on the Rugby Six Nations title and keep their Grand Slam hopes alive.

England's lock Maro Itoje, top, offloads the ball to England's Danny Care after winning a line out during their Six Nations international rugby union match against Wales at Twickenham on March 12, 201Show more

England 25 Wales 21

England Try: Watson (31); Conversion: Farrell (32); Penalties: Farrell (9, 18, 20, 45, 65, 67)

Wales Tries: Biggar (54), North (74), Faletau (77); Conversions: Biggar (55), Priestland (75, 78)

Twickenham, United Kingdom // England coach Eddie Jones reflected on a "funny" performance from his side as they went from a stunning first-half display to hanging on by their fingernails at the end of a 25-21 Rugby Six Nations win over Wales at Twickenham on Saturday.

Anthony Watson’s first-half penalty plus 20 points from the boot of Owen Farrell looked to have England cruising to victory, but they were given a huge late scare as Wales got back to within four points thanks to converted tries from Dan Biggar, George North and Toby Falatau.

The victory left England with four successive win under their new coach and within sight of their first Six Nations Grand Slam since 2003, but Jones admitted it was a mixed performance from his side.

He told ITV: “It was one game for 60 mins, another for 20 minutes, lucky we got enough points in the first 60 minutes because the last 20 minutes all belonged to Wales.

“It was a funny performance by us. I thought that at times today we were immaculate, really good, really sharp, really intense, but then we just dropped off a little but at the end.”

Read more Rugby Six Nations news:

Asked about England’s late struggles, Jones suggested that some of their second-half changes might not have worked as he looked to “test” some things out.

He added: “You don’t know what happens in those situations. We made a number of changes on purpose to test players and test the strength of the team, and maybe those changes didn’t work.”

England can now clinch the Grand Slam if they beat France in Paris next Saturday and Jones is confident they can finish the job off.

He added: “It’s a reality so we can’t wait to get to Paris next week and do the business. The Grand Slam’s there for us to take.

“They’ll play with a lot of passion and a lot of pride but we play well, we prepare well and I think we’re good enough to do the business.”

Maro Itoje was named man of the match against Wales and Jones was succinct in his appraisal of the 21-year-old, simply saying of the forward: “Well, he’s a BMW now”.

The Australian coach said last month that he wanted to turn the then uncapped Itoje from “from a Vauxhall Viva into a BMW”.

Itoje, meanwhile, said of Saturday’s win: “It was pretty tough out there, especially the last 10 minutes with a man down.

“Luckily we just had enough time to see it through.”

England led 16-0 after a one-sided first half and Wales coach Warren Gatland admitted he was puzzled as to what had gone wrong with his side before the break.

He said of their opening 40 minutes: “We just looked tired and not enthusiastic enough, but it was much better in the second half.

“Very disappointed with the first half. We made some changes, got some impetus and finished strongly. I’m pretty proud in terms of the way the players didn’t give up, they kept fighting, which was good.

“England won, they deserved to win, and hats off to them, they played particuarly well in the first half.”

Wales flanker Dan Lydiate added: “All credit to the English team, we left ourselves too much to do. We’ll look at the first half and we’ll be very disappointed.

“They came out of the blocks firing and all credit to them, but we’ve got to take a long hard look at ourselves for that first-half performance.”

Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE

Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport