Rugby World Cup champions England look more confident about defending their title following a record 62-5 defeat of rivals Wales this week.
In their first of three tests this month, the Web Ellis Cup holders dominated the game at Twickenham – a result which will give them a timely confidence boost for when they go to France for 2007’s competition.
Jonny Wilkinson, who scored the winning drop goal in the last minute of extra time against Australia in the final in 2003, is fit again after a series of on/off injuries, and kicked 17 points in the game on Saturday.
And Nick Easter impressed with a hat-trick as he became the first England number 8 to score three tries in a match.
But the game had almost reached the hour mark before Wales scored, and captain Gareth Jenkins is not impressed.“I’m hugely disappointed with the result,” he told rugbyworldcup.com.
“People back home are going to be totally unsatisfied but we’ve got to keep our heads up.”
England still have two more Tests before captain Phil Vickery has to name his World Cup squad, but, unfortunately for Wales, although they have matches against Argentina and France at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff later this month, they both fall after the 14 August, which is the deadline Jenkins has for declaring 30-man squad for France 2007.
“We’re a month away from the World Cup, and we’ve been given a hard lesson – but it’s not impossible to come back from,” continued Jenkins.
“Being competitive in the World Cup and reaching at least the quarter finals is our priority at the moment, and this game has helped us see how far we are along in that process.”
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