England v Wales media reaction as 'second division' Welsh team missed huge opportunity

Wales' narrow defeat to England is dominating the sports pages across the UK today.

Here's what the UK national papers are saying.

Wales were dangerous on the very few occasions when they could keep the ball in play without penalty. Alex Cuthbert and Tomos Williams were superb, and the endurance of Taulupe Faletau, playing his first game for Wales since the mists of time, was incredible.

They could have won, they conceded a try at a key stage when a combination of a rank throw from Ryan Elias and a barge by Maro Itoje on Adam Beard — the target — gave Alex Dombrandt a wander-in try. It was missed by the whole team of officials and their screens. Maybe their electricity had been cut off. But on the run of play, a Wales win would have been a considerable injustice.

Anyone who waited for this match to get started had to do so until about 20 minutes after it kicked off to see any worthwhile action. The referee spent what appeared like hours wandering round the scrummages trying to lessen some of the chaos without ever remotely imposing himself and when he penalised England after a whole succession of boring scrums on the Welsh line it looked and sounded like one of those random penalties where the referee is sure that someone is up to something, but he is not sure who. Or what.

England were reasonable. They have negotiated rather shakily the second division of this Six Nations but as we had seen during the France-Scotland game, division one is a completely different proposition.

All the fallout from England v Wales

Never mind the spectacle, perhaps, simply savour the scoreline. A 23-19 victory for England, on an evening when Jones had challenged his overhauled side to prove themselves as World Cup contenders-in-waiting,