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Michael Stephenson was first into the breach the gangly Craig Hamilton took it on for the

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Michael Stephenson was first into the breach, the gangly Craig Hamilton took it on for the rest of the Newcastle pack to drive James Grindal across for the try.It took Rotherham 11 minutes to get into the Falcons' half. They made far too many unforced errors, and were unable to string any phases together, while they never found a way of preventing Newcastle from exploiting quick possession and putting their runners into space.Rotherham's defensive frailties were exposed as early as the first minute of the match. Which is longer than they have managed in any of their previous games. The bad news is that well before the end they were bedraggled and bemused as Newcastle ran them ragged, scoring five unanswered tries after the interval, three of them going to Tom May, who claimed his second hat-trick of the season.It is unlikely to get any better for the South Yorkshire outfit who face the same opponents in next weekend's sixth round of the Powergen Cup, and whose survival in the Premiership after their ninth successive defeat, is looking somewhere on the certain side of improbable.Rotherham didn't protect the ball when they took it into contact. If Rotherham can take anything from this one-sided match, it is that for most of the first half they looked like a Premiership side. Replacements: G Jenkins (Celtic Warriors) for A Jones 31; G Llewellyn (Neath-Swansea Ospreys) for Cockbain 49; M Williams (Cardiff Blues) for J Thomas 59; C Sweeney (Celtic Warriors) for S Jones 61-74; D Peel (Llanelli Scarlets) for Cooper 67; M Davies (Celtic Warriors) for McBryde 67.Referee: A Rolland (Ireland).. "They've been under the hammer three times in this tournament, and they've won three times," he said "They have a lot of self-belief. But I always had questions in my mind about their defensive system and the fitness of their big tight forwards if we could work out a way of moving them around the park." Needless to say, the French have similar questions.

Further rewards came at regular intervals over the following 20 minutes as the Welsh, struggling for possession, conceded a series of penalties and saw Wilkinson hit the spot on five occasions to open up a 25-10 lead.Wales might have stayed with England had Gareth Llewellyn, on for the exhausted Cockbain, been able to maximise a clear overlap after Thomas' dangerous run towards the England posts. Sadly for them, the crucial pass hit the deck via an English hand. The Welsh hierarchy felt there was a strong case for a penalty try, but none of the officials showed the slightest interest in imposing so heavy a punishment. By the time Martyn Williams took advantage of Lawrence Dallaglio's fumbling of a high ball to scramble a third Welsh try in the 75th minute, the game was pretty much up.After Wilkinson had dropped a goal with the last kick of a captivating contest, it was left to Steve Hansen, the Wales coach, to make a pertinent point or two about England's chances of further progress. By introducing Catt, he lifted the weight of the world from Wilkinson's sagging shoulders; by replacing Jason Leonard with Trevor Woodman, he injected some dynamism into a one-paced pack.England reaped an early reward when Jason Robinson, distinctly unthreatening during the first half, suddenly tore up the Welsh defence from distance and earned Will Greenwood an equalising score in the right corner. Woodward may have his foibles, but no fair-minded critic would accuse him of being a ditherer.

They had precious little ball because Charvis and the outstanding Dafydd Jones were supremely committed to the scavenging duties, and they had even less authority because Wilkinson went walkabout.Time for a change, then. Williams duly skinned Kay before sending Gareth Cooper haring through a gap, Gareth Thomas provided the crucial link from deep, and when Williams reappeared on the full-back's shoulder, he held a difficult ball before slipping a pearl of a scoring pass to Jones. It was one of the great tries, right up there with Semo Sititi's score against the same opponents a fortnight previously.Four minutes later, Wales sent the old enemy sinking further into the quicksand when Colin Charvis wrestled his way over from a clever close-range line-out routine involving Sidoli and the rumbustuously aggressive Brett Cockbain, who had announced his intentions early by planting one on Johnson and dumping the England captain on the seat of his pristine pants Suddenly, the favourites were panic-stricken. "I don't think we said 'wow, well done Ben'," Woodward said.Example No 2: Mike Tindall, the most secure of England's back-line tacklers but prone to the odd rush of blood when isolated in defence, kicked aimlessly towards Shane Williams, thereby exposing the lolloping Ben Kay to the most rapid member of the Welsh team. Example No 1: a mere three points up and struggling for control, they threw away a stone-cold chance to double their score when Ben Cohen elected to cross-kick a penalty high to the left corner. It was a daft call, made dafter by the fact that Cohen's intended recipient was Neil Back, the shortest player on the field Predictably, Back was outjumped by Mark Jones. So much for Jonny as a World Cup titan.Before Catt's arrival, England seemed incapable of making a decision that did not explode in their faces like a third-former's stink bomb.

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