Defensively, England put nobody in the rucks and they were actively backing away from competing for the ball.
They just had a white wall and basically said to Wales, ‘we are backing our one-on-one defence with our physicality and you will not break us down’.
The number of times they went for a turnover and completed it was very high compared to wasting energy trying to compete at every breakdown.
Wales were expelling loads of energy and England were inviting them to keep coming.
It was a classic Muhammed Ali rope-a-dope. England were patiently absorbing it all and waiting for Wales to make a mistake before nicking the ball.
Wales didn’t have the ability to change their game plan and they were just getting isolated. They didn’t try and pick and go through the middle, and they punched themselves out.
There were about 10 or 12 minutes when England were 14-0 up and Wales scored a try and had one disallowed, but Maro Itoje and the leaders gave each other a bit of a telling-off and, from then on, they were pretty much faultless and went back to being patient.
The intensity, the ruck speed, the handling, the decision-making about when to pick and go and when to find the overlaps were all executed to a high level. Some of the moves in the short lineout were also playing to the strengths and the speed of the back row.
You knew with 10 minutes to go that Wales were not going to be able to put one foot in front of the other. They gave everything and didn’t make many mistakes, but they just didn’t have the personnel.
It was the best England performance of the Borthwick era by a mile and it could mean a few more of their players go on the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia this summer.
Look at what that did for the Welsh lads that went down under in 2013. It gave them enormous confidence for the rest of their careers.
There is no reason why the England players involved can’t do that, which could influence the team for years to come.
