Athens News - Arundell hat-trick inspires England thrashing of Wales in Six Nations opener

England, who last won the Six Nations six years ago, ran in seven tries in total, with Ben Earl and Tom Roebuck also crossing Wales's line before a penalty try was followed by Tommy Freeman's late score.

The remainder of England's points came from the boot of veteran fly-half George Ford, who was named player of the match after conducting the hosts' attack in style.

Victory extended England's winning streak to 12 matches in a row and was a personal triumph for Arundell, who has now scored 11 tries in just 12 internationals.

By contrast, this was Wales's 22nd defeat in 24 Tests and left them still searching for a first win in a Six Nations match since 2023.

Bath wing Arundell featured against Argentina in the bronze final at the 2023 Rugby World Cup but became unavailable for England when he signed for French club Racing 92 and the 23-year-old only made his Test comeback as a replacement against Fiji in November.

Wales's cause at a rainswept Twickenham was not helped by Arundell scoring two tries while they were down to 13 men after Nicky Smith and captain Dewi Lake were both sent to the sin-bin in quick succession.

Following Ford's early penalty, England scored their opening try in the eighth minute following a tap penalty off a close-range line-out, with the stand-off's quick pass sending Arundell in at the corner.

Wales's problems intensified when prop forward Smith was shown a yellow card following repeated infringements by the visitors.

And they were down to 13 when hooker Lake followed fellow front-row Smith into the sin-bin.

England made their two-man advantage count with two more tries.

- Cheers for Itoje -

In the 19th minute, Ford's excellent cross-kick fell straight into the unmarked Arundell's arms before an overpowered and undermanned Wales could not stop Earl going over in the left corner despite the best efforts of wing Ellis Mee to tackle the England No.8.

And five minutes before the break, Arundell had his third try.

Wales centre Ben Thomas's loose pass was picked up off the ground by England counterpart Fraser Dingwall, who released Arundell for a simple score.

Ford's third successful conversion left England 29-0 ahead at half-time, with the only question now whether they would surpass their 68-14 thrashing of Wales in Cardiff during last season's Six Nations.

Sale wing Roebuck, who was only called up after Immanuel Feyi-Waboso pulled out with a hamstring injury on Friday, added England's fifth try early in the second half.

There were more cheers from the Twickenham faithful in the 50th minute when England captain Maro Itoje, who had started the game amongst the replacements following the death of his mother, came off the bench.

Although he was shown a yellow card almost immediately after taking to the field.

Wales avoided the embarrassment of being 'nilled' when wing Josh Adams caught fly-half Dan Edwards's 52nd-minute cross-kick.

Ben Thomas was then sin-binned and Taine Plumtree became the fourth Wales player to be shown a yellow card following a high tackle on Henry Pollock in the 67th minute as the England replacement crossed the line.

French referee Pierre Brousset punished Plumtree's offence with a penalty try and Freeman's 79th-minute try completed the scoring.

England continue their quest for a first Grand Slam in a decade away to Scotland, beaten 18-15 by Italy, a week on Saturday with Wales at home to France, fresh from an impressive 36-14 defeat of Ireland, a day later.

D.Papoutsis--AN-GR