Six Nations 2022: England hopes to beat Wales on home turf

Two rounds of the Six Nations played, and nobody has yet won away from home. This weekend, France at Murrayfield or Wales at Twickenham could be the first to win away from home comforts this year. 

France, favourites for the title and unbeaten after two home matches, the second against Ireland, are the most likely of the three to record an away win. Nevertheless, though Scotland was disappointed in Cardiff, they beat England more comfortably than the score suggested, and France hasn’t won at Murrayfield since 2014.

The most fascinating match is at Twickenham, and it is fascinating for two reasons. First, England has assumed what was the traditional French role as an enigmatic team, now brilliant, now abject. Which England will turn up?

Well, their loquacious coach Eddie Jones has sprung a surprise: he has picked a starting XV that pleases even his most vocal critics, and it’s a team that promises to play in a more audacious and pleasing manner. It did so in Rome two weeks ago when the young half-backs, Marcus Smith and Harry Randall, had a lovely time.

However, one thing we can be sure of today is that Wales won’t give them such freedom and time on the ball as Italy did. Still, it’s a rare treat to see a pair of English halves having such fun.

They’ll find it tougher, of course, against Wales. Marcus Smith can expect to find the Welsh number 8, Toby Faletau, fit after injuries, running hard at him, or ready to halt any attempt at an inside break with a shuddering tackle. 

Still, Smith seems bright enough to answer most questions put to him, while Harry Randall is a delightful mischievous sprite of a scrum-half. The pair is certainly a breath of fresh air.

Not surprisingly, after much fanfare music when he was named in the squad, Manu Tuilagi has withdrawn with, this time, a hamstring injury. Tuilagi has been the missing Saviour of English rugby, the king over, as it were, the water, for far too long now. “Will ye no’ come back again?” 

Waiting for Manu is now much like Waiting for Godot. I read that he has now missed seventy-nine internationals on account of injuries and time spent in Rehab. I doubt the fans’ “if only Manu was there” does anything but harm to the team. In November, his most recent international, he lasted all of ten minutes against South Africa, his injury that day coming as he scored a try.

England nearly always win at Twickenham, sometimes brilliantly, often stodgily. Welsh teams, packed with more glittering talent than this year’s one, have come a cropper there. 

On form, there’s little reason to think this year’s one will do much better. They were abject against Ireland in Dublin, competing against a lacklustre and strangely subdued Scotland in Cardiff.

Man for man their forwards compare badly with England’s and their backs have shown nothing to alarm opponents. It somehow seems appropriate that last season’s Welsh Boy Wonder, Louis Rees-Sammit, a Lion in the summer, has been dropped and replaced by Alex Cuthbert whose less than stellar international career withered four or so years ago.

Yet, as their record over the last ten or a dozen years suggests, it’s almost always a mistake to write Wales off. They have kept on winning matches, the tournament and even Grand Slams without shining like great Welsh teams of the gradually receding past, sometimes indeed while looking decidedly ordinary. Nevertheless, they’ve won when more exciting and glamorous teams have folded.

Then they approach the England game with an intensity they bring to no other one, and they are almost always difficult customers. Dan Biggar will bombard the English back-three, and if England finds themselves stupidly and carelessly on the wrong side of the penalty count as was so often the case in the Farrell years, the match at Twickenham might turn against them. 

If things click, England should win and might do so by twenty points; yet I wouldn’t be surprised if Wales first stifled them, then edged ahead and won.

Where to Watch It:

Scotland v France on Sat 26 Feb at 2:15 pm on BBC One

England v Wales on Sat 26 at 4:45 pm on ITV1

Ireland v Italy on Sun 27 Feb at 3pm on ITV1.