James Lawton heralds a potential new beginning for England following their improved performance against Wales in The Independent.
"After the turgid futility of their effort against a catastrophically selected Italy a week earlier, Martin Johnson's team looked like, well, a team, or at least the scrappy beginnings of one.
"You had a clear sense of this on Jonno's post-match face. It broke into irritation when he was invited to rejoice in the status of a gallant loser. He does gallant losing about as well a a cornered wolverine. Winning beasts are all the same. They do not learn to lose gracefully because what is their point if they do not win?
"England may have had scarcely a fraction of the cleverness and coherence of a Welsh unit one clear notch below their best, and minus the sublime catalyst Shane Williams, and their inherent indiscipline may still have flared like a teenager's spots, but their manager could put his hand to his competitive heart when claiming that his men might just have won.
"Two more yellow cards, on top of the six collected against Italy and New Zealand, still spoke of the desperate need for much more work on this fundamental problem before the visit to Croke Park in two weeks, but there was no doubt Johnson could hand out a few well-earned battle ribbons among those who ran Europe's best team so unexpectedly close."
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