England clawed their way back from a first-half deficit for the second straight weekend in this year's Six Nations as they beat Wales 16-14 at Twickenham on Saturday.
Just as they did against Italy last weekend, England were made to scrap hard for their victory, this time against a much improved and resilient Welsh side.
After all the talk in the build up to the game of improving the atmosphere at Twickenham, England did their best to get the crowd on their feet, starting fast and dominating the opening exchanges.
However, the pressure was not converted to points and momentum soon shifted. Lock Ollie Chessum was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle on Keiron Assiratti and it immediately proved costly, as Wales marched down the field and scored the first try of the match.
In a double blow for England, the visitors were awarded a penalty try and Ethan Roots was sent to the bin for bringing down the maul.
Steve Borthwick's team responded immediately as Maro Itoje won a turnover off the restart. Ben Earl darted off the back of the scrum to score their first try of the night and wake the Twickenham crowd from its slumber.
England fans' delight quickly turned to outrage as Wales charged down George Ford's conversion attempt. The crafty move was allowed to stand with the referee judging the English fly-half had started his run up as he stepped to one side.
The hosts may have started fast, but it was Wales who grew into the game, building pressure and controlling the ball as the half went on.
They were rewarded on the stroke of half-time as flanker Alex Mann finished off a well worked move in his first start to extend their lead. Ioan Lloyd slotted the conversion to give Wales a 14-5 lead at half-time.
There was plenty of niggle between the rivals after the break, as Ford slotted a penalty to make it 14-8.
England started to mount pressure and this time it paid off. Ford and Elliot Daly spread the ball wide and found Fraser Dingwall who raced to the left-hand corner for his first international try.
Ford could not convert and the hosts trailed by one point, but the turning point came with ten minutes to play as Mason Grady was shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock on.
Ford made up for his earlier miss by scoring the penalty as England took a 16-14 lead. Twickenham held its breath in the dying minutes, but the home side held on to remain unbeaten in the Championships.
Wales travel to Dublin in round three, while England head north to Edinburgh to face Scotland at Murrayfield.
