London (AFP)

Wales kept their chances of achieving the grand slam in the 2021 Six Nations Tournament intact by beating England (40-24) in Cardiff on Saturday, which lost all chances of a final victory.

Already beaten by Scotland at home during the first day (11-6), the XV of the rose suffered a second setback while he still has to receive France and go to Ireland.

The XV of the leek chains him a third success and wins the Triple Crown after triumphing over the Irish and then in Scotland, his two opponents having been reduced early enough in the match to 14.

Refereeing also played an important role in this match, the first period having been marked by two very controversial decisions by French referee Pascal Gauzère to give two tries to the reds.

The first on a penalty after which he asked captain Owen Farrell, who had not cleared the tackle zone quickly enough, to speak to his team to tell them to be more disciplined.

Even before the English team had replaced, he let Dan Biggar stamp his foot for his winger Josh Adams who had landed the ball close to the goal line and without much opposition (10-3 , 17th).

-English indiscipline-

The second try of the XV of the leek, by Liam Williams, seemed marred by a forward from Louis Rees-Zammit who had let the ball drop, but the latter having touched neither the ground nor an opponent before being sent back by his calf, the action was validated by video refereeing (17-6, 29th).

Thanks to Farrell's boot and a try from Anthony Watson (35th), England nevertheless managed to stay in contact at the break (17-14).

A quarter of an hour from the end, the score was still 24-24 and the outcome very indecisive, a try by scrum-half Ben Youngs (61st) having responded to another of his counterpart Kieran Hardy, his 2nd in 4 selections, after quickly playing a penalty.

But what makes England really unrecognizable is their lack of discipline which had already penalized them against Scotland and Italy, despite their victory.

The English conceded two penalties that Callum Sheedy did not pray to transform (66th, 69th), before Cory Hill, with a converted try one minute from the end, widens a crippling gap (40-24, 79th).

© 2021 AFP