Wales 21 England 31

England returned to the top of the RBS Six Nations table, albeit briefly, after managing to subdue a lively second-half resurgence from Wales to record a 31-21 win in a pulsating encounter at Twickenham.

Sir Clive Woodward's men will now travel to Paris knowing victory against France could see them crowned champions -- but such thoughts will not be enough to block out the knowledge that this performance was not quite the one England had promised to deliver following their defeat to Ireland a fortnight ago.

The visitors clearily fancied picking up were their Celtic cousin left off and, leading by 21-16 with less then 15 minutes to go, managed to silence Twickenham and turn an anxious Sir Clive the colour of an England shirt.

The England coach's pallour was understandable -- Wales had managed to overcome a crippling handicap up front to sneak in two fine tries in the first 10 minutes of the second half.

But -- to England's credit -- they managed to find the bottle they lacked against Ireland, and stole back the lead (and the day) by squeezing the life out of the visiting pack.

But Wales certainly took some pinning down -- they were in town to commit an act of regicide, and a slicing break by Tom Shanklin (a late replacement for Iestyn Harris) during their opening salvo set the alarm bells ringing in English ears.

Wales looked to test England's resolve by running them ragged, whilst the hosts seemed keen to do exactly the same as if to prove to their critics that their self-belief was still intact.

After only five minutes of play, England wing Ben Cohen cloaked his side's fans in a false sense of security by scoring an impressive try in the same corner that gave him a spot of bother against Ireland.

Cohen had plenty to do when he received Will Greenwood's pass 25 metres out, but he bounced out of Gareth Thomas' tackle and held off another Thomas, Jonathan this time, to dot down.

Bath youngster Olly Barkley (a late replacement for the injured Paul Grayson) had the nerve to slot a superb kick from out wide, and normal Twickenham service appeared to have been resumed.

Wales hit back with two Stephen Jones penalty goals -- but England's pack were keen to absolve themselves of their Irish sins and strong-armed their opponents into conceding a number of penalties, and Barkley was soon given the chance to answer back with a brace of place-kicks his own.

England were now running the show, but never managed to turn the pressure into the kind of points they were looking for, and went into the break leading 16-9 after the fly-halves had exchanged further penalties.

But Wales weren't buried yet -- they shocked their hosts by hitting back with a long-distance try in the opening minutes of the second half after props Gethin Jenkins and Duncan Jones combined to send Gareth Thomas over in the corner for a try.  (The fullback's splendid 33rd Welsh touchdown finally brought him equal with Welsh record-holder of Ieuan Evans.)

Jones slotted the difficult conversion to bring the scores level, but soon missed an opportunity to put Wales in front with a sliced penalty attempt.

Whilst England -- clearly still the dominant party -- looked to each other for answers, Wales struck yet again.

A poor kick from Barkley allowed Wales to counter, and a brilliant reverse pass out of trouble from Dafydd Jones saw Shane Williams draw Jason Robinson before putting veteran centre Mark Taylor over in the left corner.

The reversal in fortunes clearly stumped the English players, a lesser team could have frozen up but the whites decided to turn the screw up front -- right where it would hurt the Welsh the most.

As the match entered the final quarter England, pushing the Welsh pack this way and that, laid siege to the Welsh line only to be denied by some superb last-ditch defence.

Cohen finally broke the stalemate by stretching over the line at the fringe to score his second try from close-range after Phil Vickery and Matt Dawson were both held up short.

Barkley's conversion regained the lead at 23-21 and he added a further penalty before a soft late try from replacement Joe Worsley killed Wales' hopes dead.

There was more English relief than joy at the final whistle, the grim realisation was that England had struggled to beat a side unable to compete up front.  France will be licking their lips.

Man of the match:  It says a lot for England's embarrassment of riches that they can call on their fourth-choice fly-half and still get a player of superlative ability.  Olly Barkley wins our award not so much for delivering all that England asked of him, but for pulling off a confident display (in his first England start) after coming in at the 11th hour.

Moment of the match:  There were plenty of scintillating breaks from both sides, but this game was settled up front.  Nothing epitomised England's forward dominance more than Steve Thompson's charge at Brent Cockbain.  The English rake took the ball into the Australian-born lock's midriff and literally picked Cockbain off his feet and drove him back 10 yards!  Thompson has got a lot of flack since his line-out nightmare against Ireland, but here was response to all those who called for his canning:  "I'm more than just the bloke who throws the ball back into play!"

Villain of the match:  Wales were guilty of slowing up English ball early in the game, but -- such was England's dominance in the tight -- there was little else they could do.  They were duly punished by both referee Andy Cole and Olly Barkley, so we'll let them off with a warning.  No villains this time.

The Teams:

Wales:  1 Gethin Jenkins, 2 Robin McBryde, 3 Duncan Jones, 4 Brent Cockbain, 5 Michael Owen, 6 Jonathan Thomas, 7 Colin Charvis (c), 8 Dafydd Jones, 9 Gareth Cooper, 10 Stephen Jones, 11 Rhys Williams, 12 Tom Shanklin, 13 Mark Taylor, 14 Shane Williams, 15 Gareth Thomas
Reserves:  Dwayne Peel, Ceri Sweeney, Ben Evans, Gareth Llewellyn, Martyn Williams
Unused:  Mefin Davies, Jamie Robinson

England:  1 Phil Vickery, 2 Steve Thompson, 3 Trevor Woodman, 4 Ben Kay, 5 Danny Grewcock, 6 Richard Hill, 7 Chris Jones, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio (c), 9 Matt Dawson, 10 Olly Barkley, 11 Ben Cohen, 12 Will Greenwood, 13 Mike Tindall, 14 Josh Lewsey, 15 Jason Robinson
Reserves:  Mike Catt, Joe Worsley, Julian White
Unused:  Andy Gomarsall, Mark Regan, Steve Borthwick, James Simpson-Daniel

Attendance:  72200
Referee:  Cole a.

Points Scorers:

Wales
Tries:  Thomas G. 1, Taylor M. 1
Conv:  Jones S.M. 1
Pen K.:  Jones S.M. 3

England
Tries:  Cohen B.C. 2, Worsley J.P.R. 1
Conv:  Barkley O.J. 2
Pen K.:  Barkley O.J. 4