Man of the match James Haskell scored two tries as England opened their Six Nations campaign with a 30-17 win over Wales at Twickenham.
The match, which marked the centenary of the first Test ever played at Twickenham, turned with Wales lock Alun-Wyn Jones's moment of madness in tripping England hooker Dylan Hartley six minutes before half-time.
That sparked a 17-point spree for England as they took the score from 3-3 to 20-3 in their favour.
"That was absolutely stupid what he's done," was Wales coach Warren Gatland's scathing reaction to Jones' indiscretion.
And Alun-Wyn Jones could well pay dearly for it as Gatland made plain when asked whether he would drop somebody for such a crass misjudgement.
"Absolutely. Its huge if you see the impact his mistake had on the match. It effectively lost us the game."
Martin Johnson delighted
His England counterpart Martin Johnson was delighted with aspects of the way England played, especially after a difficult autumn series where they were booed by the home crowd.
"We played well at times and not so well at others," admitted England's 2003 World Cup winning captain.
"But generally I am happy with the way the guys played. We did lose our way a little bit in the second-half and there is lots and lots to work on but scoring 30 points against Wales is no mean feat."
Wales, trailing 20-10 with just nine minutes left, got back into the match with a try from centre James Hook that saw him ghost past England outside centre Mathew Tait, hand off a prop and leave Jonny Wilkinson flat-footed.
Stephen Jones converted and England's lead was down to 20-17.
But with just five minutes left England scored their third try and blindside flanker Haskell his second.
Delon Armitage's interception sparked a counter-attack that saw the full-back release centre Toby Flood.
He in turn found Tait, making only his second start since the 2007 World Cup final and celebrating his 24th birthday on Saturday.
Tait surged down the right and then kept his nerve to deliver a superb inside pass to Haskell, who had a good laugh afterwards over his dive to touch down.
"I had to celebrate it as its my second try for England, though, the dive will probably get me a ribbing in the dressingroom," he laughed.
"On a more serious note we are very excited about what we are doing. This victory is a step in the right direction," added the Stade Francais star.
There was still time for Wilkinson to kick his third penalty as England ended a run of three straight Six Nations defeats by Wales.
After Alun-Wyn Jones was sin-binned, Wilkinson added the penalty for the yellow card offence.
Then a rare break by left wing Ugo Monye took England to within sight of Wales's line.
After a couple of five metre scrums, recalled scrum-half Danny Care then took a quick tap penalty and England's driving play was rewarded when Haskell burrowed over.
Wilkinson converted to leave England 13-3 ahead at half-time.
And early in the second half, with Alun-Wyn Jones still off the field, England added a second try when, after captain Steve Borthwick had stripped the ball in the tackle, Monye fed Care, who went over for a converted score.
But then Alun-Wyn Jones returned and Wales hit back with a try of their own when prop Adam Jones made the most of an overlap.
Stephen Jones converted to reduce England's lead to 20-10.
And the fly-half might have cut the gap yet further when he missed moments later with a 35 metre penalty to set alongside two off-target shots at goal in the first half from Hook.
Wales, who in the opening period had looked more dangerous with ball in hand, then missed a great chance to score their second try when wing Tom James, released by Hook, knocked on just metres from England's line.
Both teams rarely threatened each other's try-line in a stop-start opening half hour marked by handling errors that gave little indication of the thrilling finale.
Irish shake off cobwebs
Ireland and world coach of the year Declan Kidney said on Saturday he hoped his Six Nations Grand Slam holders had shaken off the cobwebs and rust in their uninspiring opening 29-11 victory over traditional whipping boys Italy.
The Irish had veteran fly-half Ronan O'Gara to thank for 16 points from his boot and also scored two tries in the first-half through Jamie Heaslip - his fourth for his country - and scrum-half Tomas O'Leary with his first.
"Well, we won," was the succinct if unflattering comment from Kidney.
With what could prove to be the Championship decider against France in Paris next Saturday, Kidney - who guided Ireland to an undefeated record last year rounding it off with victory over world champions South Africa - admitted his team need to make more passes stick if they are to emulate last season's Grand Slam.
"We managed to get a few points up and I think the squad ethic kicked in too. They were the pluses and I thought the scrum went OK.
"Obviously, there's loads of things we want to get better but we decided that at Christmas we'd take a break because giving the players rest is just as important as any training they do.
"They had a very extensive 12 months last year so we were bound to be that little bit rusty.
"We were trying things in the second half but we didn't manage to get any pace into the game. But we'll take the win and move on," Kidney said.
French likely unworried
While France coach Marc Lievremont will have seen little in the Irish performance to worry him, he will have noted that Italy's expected dominance in the scrum failed to materialise.
And much of the credit must go to Leinster's Cian Helay who stood firm against Martin Castrogiovanni.
Man-of-the-match David Wallace was more enthusiastic about his team's performance up front.
"We got exactly what we thought we were going to get in the first game of the Championship. Italy coming over here they've always been very tough opponents. It was a hugely physical game.
"There was a lot of pressure on us against a highly rated Italian scrum that did well against a very good All Blacks' scrum in the autumn. I suppose the challenge was laid down for us but we were very happy with the way it went," the Munster open side said.
But the Irish had little else to shout about after two tries in the first-half should have set the platform for a more comprehensive win.
Italy's second-half improvement defensively and in the lineout coincided with Ireland's all round decline. The loss of stalwarts Paul O'Connell and O'Gara - who performed well with Jonathan Sexton breathing down his neck for the outhalf berth - was no excuse.
At this stage, Kidney expects both to be fit for the Paris encounter.
Wallace and Kidney gave credit to Italy's defence, which might have kept them in the game but for a shocking aberration towards the end of the first half.
The Azzuri lost their own ball in a lineout five metres from their own line. The throw to a shortened line went straight into the arms of Leo Cullen who drove to within a metre of the line. Then the cover was too slow arriving, allowing O'Leary flop over for five points.
Head coach Nick Mallett bemoaned the errors but took positives out of the second half.
"I thought our defence was fantastic in the second half. I thought that Ireland had a hell of a lot of ball and in the past they probably would have scored three or four tries in the second half," said the former South Africa coach.
"We didn't have the ball and without the ball you cannot really present much danger on attack.
"The first half was disappointing because we felt that two individual mistakes let in two tries. At this level at 23 points to 8 down at half time, it was a mountain to climb
"I think we lost eight lineouts and were penalised three times at the scrum so that was eleven times that we didn't have the ball. So we have to look at that part of our game.
"Ireland are a very good side. They're very pragmatic and have got a very good set of backs, probably the best backline in Europe. It was our job not to give them ball," added Mallett.
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