Eddie Butler comments on several upsets perpetrated by England at the Millennium Stadium in The Guardian.
"Selected with defence in mind, England outscored Wales two tries to one, which was one of the many minor upsets of the day. The big one, an England victory, did not happen, but the cocktail of the unexpected was rich enough to make this fascinating from start to finish.
"One of the few things that can be totally relied on is indiscipline in the England ranks. Players can rage all they like about being persecuted, but if you are labelled as a negative influence on the game, you have to be extra careful about your conduct at the heavily policed areas. England are viewed as a side who want to slow down the game. How they do it, at a time when the general encouragement is to speed rugby up, is going to be scrutinised by the officials.
"They also have to listen to the referees. Mike Tindall was sent to the sin-bin as early as the 15th minute, but the referee, Jonathan Kaplan, had already issued two warnings to the captain, Steve Borthwick, before the centre played the ball after the tackle. The referee was telling Tindall not to play the ball, but the player restored to bring organisation and thoughtfulness to the defensive operation chose not to listen.
"The yellow card shown to Andy Goode was different. This was a self-sacrifice to prevent the try, the rugby equivalent of the football centre-half flying into the top corner to palm way a goal-bound shot. Goode had made a try-saving tackle on Leigh Halfpenny, but there was still some more scrabbling to do, a piece of delaying work to stop Wales from running away with the game at the start of the second half."
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