England, who were reduced to 12 men at one stage with Ellis Genge and Freddie Steward in the sin-bin and Owen Farrell sent off, fought back to snatch a 19-17 victory, leaving match-winner George Ford happy.
Here’s what they said following the match:
WARREN GATLAND
“I’m furious and pretty disappointed. We found out about a few people today, about some game management when we had them on the ropes and let them off the hook.
“I hate losing and we put ourselves into a position where we should have won the game. England tried to bully us and it didn’t come off. We capitulated in terms of accuracy and players knowing their roles.
“That was disappointing, some of the accuracy. We were good last week, and we just weren’t up to the mark this week, particularly at lineout time.
“We spent a lot of time making sure there was clarity. We’ve had eight new caps in the last few weeks and that was the most experienced England team they’ve ever put out. They didn’t threaten us in their attack, apart from the driving maul.
“We put ourselves in front, put ourselves in a good position to win and then we turned it over, and gave away some soft penalties in key and crucial moments. And we ended up with the same numbers on the field with the yellow card as well.
“We’ll see about next week in terms of selection but we need to be a lot better. We were comfortable at one stage, looked like we were going to put the game away but unfortunately shot ourselves in the foot.”
Dewi Lake leaves the field injured.
ON WELSH INJURIES
“Dewi Lake looks like he’s got a bit of a knee issue and Taine Basham has a shoulder issue, which we’ll get scanned. Dewi is pretty gutted and pretty disappointed. He’s gone to jackal on the ball, Owen Farrell has tried to roll him, and he’s ended up landing on his leg. It’s unfortunate but we don’t know the extent of it.”
ON OWEN FARRELL BEING SENT OFF
“I think it was the right decision on the day. I hope he doesn’t have too much of a ban, but given his previous I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
JOSH ADAMS
“That’s a game we should have put to bed, if we are brutally honest. We took the lead through a great try. I thought we were going to probably build on that and see the game out but a few errors let them back in at the end.
“Discipline on both sides was a massive issue and we need to cut the penalty count. We should have managed that game a lot better when they were down to 12 men.”
DEBUT-MAKING CENTRE JOE ROBERTS
“It was unbelievable, quite overwhelming running out and I really enjoyed it. The match was a bit stop-start and our discipline probably let us down. We couldn’t build any momentum or pressure.
“I think we took our foot off the gas and, at this level and with the experience they had on their side, you just can’t do that.”
ENGLAND MATCH-WINNER GEORGE FORD ON FARRELL’S RED CARD
“He plays the game on the edge. We will get around him whatever the situation and whatever the outcome is. He is huge for us, he is the captain and the way he drives things every day is unbelievable.”
ENGLAND FLANKER BEN EARL
“We worked right to the end. We speak about never stopping and we showed that. We went down to 12 men at one point and we came back so we are really pleased.
“We are overwhelmed to win at home, we showed a bit of fight after the questions that were asked of us after last week.”
