Wales see off brave England

Wales recorded an eighth straight win in the RBS Six Nations, though they were pushed all the way by England before triumphing 23-15 in Cardiff.

Despite only scoring one try to their opponents' two, the hosts came out on top thanks to the prolific boot of Stephen Jones, who kicked five penalties.

Leigh Halfpenny also slotted over three points and grabbed Wales' try during a crucial period of play right at the start of the second half.

England had threatened to cause an upset thanks to scores from Paul Sackey and Delon Armitage but in the end all they left the Millennium Stadium with was some restored pride, rather than two points.

Inspired Worsley

Having picked a team thought to be intent only on damage limitation, Martin Johnson's line-up instead came close to being a masterstroke in team management.

The selection of Joe Worsley, who marshalled the dangerous Jamie Roberts superbly, certainly proved inspired, while the centre combination of Riki Flutey and Mike Tindall blossomed with ball in hand.

But, while there was improvement on the turgid efforts shown against Italy last weekend, the familiar problem of poor discipline was again apparent.

Just as they had done at Twickenham seven days earlier, England had two players shown yellow cards - the second to Andy Goode just after half-time being quickly followed by Wales' solitary try.

Tindall had also been sent to the sin-bin in the opening half, the centre ordered off as referee Jonathan Kaplan finally ran out of patience.

Halfpenny, who had already missed a 50-metre effort, popped over the resulting penalty, his effort sandwiched in between two from Stephen Jones that gave Wales a deserved 9-0 lead.

Yet rather than be the building block for them to go on and exploit the extra man, the advantage only seemed to make the reigning champions ease up.

England took advantage of their rivals' malaise to get themselves off and running, with Sackey winning a foot race against Mark Jones, playing in place of the crocked Shane Williams, to touch down.

It was Goode's kick that had led to the opportunity and although the fly-half missed the conversion, his drop goal on the half hour meant it was a 9-8 scoreline at the break.

At that stage the game was firmly in the balance. Within four minutes of the restart Wales had scored eight points and England were again down to 14.

Goode night

Goode was the man to walk this time, for hanging on in the tackle, and his absence was felt immediately as it cost three points courtesy of the dead-eyed Jones and his trusty right foot.

Having paid the price for taking their foot off the gas in the opening half, this time Warren Gatland's troops decided to step up the pace with the man extra - their reward being an easy run-in for Halfpenny in the right corner.

Jones failed to add the conversion but did succeed with a penalty attempt to make it 20-8, although, to their credit, England still refused to go away.

Benefiting from quick ball, something that has been such a rareity in recent performances, an overlap on the left allowed Armitage to throw a dummy and cut inside to head under the posts. Toby Flood, on for Goode, converted.

In the end there was to be no English revenge for the stunning loss suffered in the corresponding fixture last season, though, Wales following up that 26-19 result with a win on home turf to stay on course for back-to-back Grand Slams.

Fittingly it was Jones who hammered the final nail in the coffin, his fifth and final penalty extending the gap to two scores with little time left.