England and Wales players had to be separated as they squared up to one another in an intense first-half inside Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. Matt Sherratt’s side were frustrated after finding themselves 14-0 down at home and staring at the Wooden Spoon, while their opposite numbers have a chance at a Six Nations title win.
When the visitors were just one try ahead, Wales had a try controversially disallowed as Tomos Williams was adjudged to have been in an offside position when he challenged Tom Curry. The contentious decision came as an England hand was the last to touch the ball.
Shortly after, the players got to know each other even closer as they squared up to one another moments after Tommy Roebuck’s try.
Aaron Wainwright and Dafydd Jenkins squared up to Ollie Chessum after a scrum, which Nicky Smith also got involved in as handbags were thrown on the side of the pitch.
They grabbed each other by the top of the shirt as Chessum looked worse off, with Wainwright laughing at the English lock before his skipper Maro Itoje attempted to calm the affairs down.
As the referee told off both sets of players, BBC commentator Andrew Cotter explained the incident: “This is Curry and Nicky Smith and then Aaron Wainwright took exception to that…”
His Beeb colleague Jonathan Davies shut down the notion that there was anything sinister about the incident, adding: “It’s absolutely nothing.”
The hosts then found themselves back in the game on the 30th-minute mark through Ben Thomas after a fizzing pass under pressure by Williams.
It was the first real pressure that Wales had put on the English line, after Jac Morgan and Taulupe Faletau made strong and more frequent inroads into the defence.
A smart line-out move involving Wainwright and Will Rowlands ended with the ball at the hands of Williams, who produced a piece of magic to get Wales on the scoreboard after finishes from Itoje and Roebuck.
However, the visitors capitalised on a kicking mistake and Tommy Freeman went over to seal a piece of English history by scoring in each of his side’s five Six Nations matches in 2025, putting out that short-lived flicker of hope inside Cardiff before Chandler Cunningham-South and Will Stuart extended the lead to 26 points by crashing over before half-time.
