Key Moments: England vs Wales

It might have only been a friendly but there was a lot on the line and a lot to play for. Pride, confidence and the status of being the world highest ranked international side going into the World Cup. And this game rose to the occasion. Whitton Road, Twickenham was where it went down, and the Welsh found themselves just lagging the whole game. 33 - 19 was the final score and the standing Six Nations Champion's journey to this year's Rugby World Cup was dented. Not only did the away side lose a 14-match unbeaten streak but it also meant that they were the highest-ranked side for little over 24 hours.

We look at the key moments that shaped the nature of this afternoon's result:

Opening 5 minutes of the game

It took England less than five minutes to silence any sort of Welsh support in the stand. This was after some great play by Tom Curry who carried up well gaining good metres for his side and in the end linked up well with Jonathan Joseph. Billy Vunipola was the man to dot over when he seemed to be held up. This once again showed the importance of a strong opening play as England went on to dominate the away side scoring again in the 13th minute.

67th minute

Building phases can put all sorts of pressure on the opposition especially when going forward and threatening. With just less than 20 minutes to play and the game well within the Welsh's hands, they began to put together some good phases. However, it was a great dual tackle on Courtney Lawes and Lewis Ludlam that drove the men in red backwards. Under pressure they began throwing some hail mary passes which ended in a forward pass, bring an end to 15 phases of play. Dan Biggar the culprit as he looked to play his outside man. You must earn the right to go wide, and the way the Welsh were being driven backwards this was not the time to go backwards. In the end, England did well to win a scrum penalty shortly after that and George Ford managed to stretch the lead with the game running away from the Six Nations winners.

England Scrum

With just over a month before the World Cup showpiece, many teams will be looking to sharpen their strong points and we have seen the scrum being used as a tool of relieving pressure or asserting dominance. This was a key to the Springbok's result against Argentina last night and was brilliantly used by the White Roses today. In the same sequence of play England won two scrum penalties. The first to exit from their 22 and the next to earn themselves three points. This was very demotivating for the Wales side as they went from nearly scoring to conceding three. And if they did score they would have come within one point.

Jonathan Joseph

With Henry Slade battling with a knee injury, this meant that England would see an old face line up against the Welsh today. And who else to rise to the occasion than 2015 England Player of the Year Jonathan Joseph. And he did not disappoint ending the game with 43 metres gained from five carries. In the process, he beat three defenders and broke the line twice. He surely did not make the supporters miss Slade today. He will feel unlucky to not have received the pass from Willi Heinz for the try that was eventually scored by Joe Cokanasiga.