Wales come from behind to beat England in thriller at Twickenham

Dan Biggar's kicking played a crucial part in Wales’ come from behind win over England

In what was the biggest contest of the 2015 Rugby World Cup so far, Wales registered a superb come-from-behind win over hosts England in their Pool A encounter at Twickenham, winning 28-25.

Matches between the two British nations have always been tense and had an edge about them with their rivalry being one of the biggest in world rugby, at least in the northern hemisphere. Before today, England had 58 wins to Wales’ 56 with 12 draws also between the two.

Welsh fly-half Dan Biggar had one of the best games of his career as his kicks graced the beginning and ending of this match.

A late Wales try late in the game followed by a conversion from Biggar had brought the scores level and soon after Biggar scored from a 48-metre penalty kick to and stay perfect on the night with his kicking and give Wales the lead and eventually the win after an intense clash.

The hosts had the better of the game right upto the hour mark, but conceded one too many penalties for their liking. After a nervy opening 20 minutes to the game, the kicking game from both sides took centre stage as they got their teams going.

Wales scored first through Biggar’s penalty kick after which Farrell scored two penalty kicks of his own and a drop goal and Biggar added another to have the score 9-6 in England’s favour. England soon started to dominate the scrums and the rucks thanks to their forwards.

On 27 minutes, the try came as May got the ball near the touchline from Ben Youngs and he touched down between the posts. Biggar scored one more penalty to keep the difference down to seven as England went into the break 16-9 up.

The kicking contest continued in the second half as Biggar scored three more to Farrell’s two to help bridge the gap. The kicking was spectacular all night as Biggar and his counterpart, Owen Farrell, stayed perfect with their kicking to boost their teams. Jonny May scored a first half try as well that looked to have set England on course for a second victory.

England’s pack had had a strong outing and with about 15 minutes to go, had done damage not only with respect to the score, but also in terms of bodies, as centre Scot Williams and full back Liam Williams were both stretchered off the field in pain.

Being the more dominant team in the second half, Wales’ sustained pressure helped reduce the arrears, but they also had to deal with two key players being stretchered off the pitch in yet more injury problems to hit them. They lost winger Hallam Amos too after he suffered an injury to his right arm.

Wales trailed 18-25 at this point when they lost the duo, but refused to buckle down and give up and a superb team move soon gave scrum half Gareth Davies an opportunity and he made no mistake touching down under the posts in the 71st minute.

With the conversion done, Biggar stepped up once again to make the all-important winning penalty under pressure three minutes later to send the home crowd into silence. England had one last chance as they earned a penalty near the right touchline with about two minutes to go, but they opted to go for the try instead of the penalty kick, but couldn’t make anything of the opportunity.

Biggar was expectedly named man-of-the-match as he notched up 23 points, a record for the most points ever by a Welsh player in a world cup game.

The match was a key contest in the grand scheme of things in this Pool A, dubbed the ‘Pool of Death’, for it contains three of the top five teams in the world in Australia, England and Wales.

England next face the Wallabies in exactly a week’s time here at Twickenham and that clash now assumes even more significance. With the win, Wales are in a strong position to make the quarter-finals, even if they lose to Australia.