Dan Biggar inspires famous Wales comeback to shock England

An ordinary game produced an extraordinary finish and left the World Cup hosts in danger of not making the knockout stage of their own tournament. If England do fail to make the last eight, they will in effect have knocked themselves out after letting a double-figure lead slip to a casualty-ravaged Wales side that lost three more players to serious injuries but still scored more points here than ever before.

England were 10 points ahead in the third quarter and comfortably in control against opponents who had barely mounted a significant attack and whose vaunted defence was pulled apart with surprising ease at times. Wales, though, had Dan Biggar who achieved what few had thought was possible and replaced the injured Leigh Halfpenny in kind, landing eight kicks out of eight including the winning penalty from the halfway line which was thought to have been out of his range.

Biggar was one of the few players who stood out on a night that demanded heroism rather than inspiration. Invective will find its way to England’s head coach, Stuart Lancaster, for making a sudden U-turn over attacking strategy and selecting a midfield that lacked spark. Yet it was not Sam Burgess who cost his side but more experienced players such as Dan Cole, Tom Youngs, Mike Brown and Billy Vunipola who gave away needless penalties at the breakdown in a game in which England were not particularly taxed defensively.

England looked competent at worst behind, Burgess contributing to their first-half try by Jonny May, making a run from a lineout that allowed Anthony Watson to come in from his wing and create enough space that even a bungled pass to Brown did not give Wales enough time to reorganise their defence. Then Ben Youngs, whose loss after 49 minutes to a knee injury robbed Lancaster of a player who was taking charge of the game, delayed his pass long enough to draw in Scott Williams and give May a free run to the line.

Wales had taken an early lead through the boot of Biggar, but from the moment England went ahead for the first time on 22 minutes, profiting from the visitors’ problems up front, they did not look like losing the match. Their fall started when Wales had to replace three backs in a costly four-minute spell just after the hour and so disoriented did England become, confronting a formation they had not planned for, that they conceded a soft try and then the lead when Brown, who was overdosed on adrenalin from the outset, gave away a penalty for holding on.

Perhaps that was why the England captain, Chris Robshaw, declined to kick a penalty from 30 metres, with less than three minutes left, to tie the scores. He said afterwards that it was a difficult angle, but Owen Farrell and Biggar had landed 15 kicks out of 15 from the tee between them and it was more that a draw would have seemed like a defeat given England’s dominance and the opposition’s stricken appearance.

Robshaw opted for a lineout and a driving maul, but Wales’s injuries were behind, not at forward where they had been reinforced by the second-row Luke Charteris, the long arms of the law at the set piece. He duly thwarted the attempted drive and when England had a second opportunity, Richard Wigglesworth held on and Wales, who played for the last 15 minutes with a fly-half at full-back, a wing in the centre and a scrum-half on the left wing, held on for one of their most unlikely victories here and their third in the past seven years. It was a success based on emotion and heart, everyone fighting for a cause only they knew was not lost.

It was as if Wales were back in Switzerland and Qatar, where they had spent gruelling weeks in the summer, pushed to the limits of their endurance and beyond. England, in contrast, fell apart, in the end showing the uncertainty and lack of assurance that reflected an inconsistent selection policy: when they needed to find themselves, they could not.

The group is far from over. Wales have Fiji on 1 October when they will again need to be fuelled by desire and an ability to stare adversity in the face. They somehow have to fashion a back division having lost many personnel. They are a team inured not to feel pain and while parts of their performance, especially in the second and third quarters, made them look anything but potential quarter-finalists, a scrum that cost them penalties, a lineout that England started to read and a lack of impact with ball in hand as Jamie Roberts and George North struggled to get into the game, they did not lack self-belief.

No only self-belief, they have Biggar, a player who a couple of years ago was regarded as too volatile to be the team’s pilot. He is all calmness and polish now, kicking his goals, putting his forwards in the right areas, tackling with relish, once saving a try and the match by hauling down Robshaw after a May break, and taking on defenders. There is no higher tribute to him than to say that Halfpenny was not missed.

Not even Biggar seemed to be enough when Wales trailed 25-18 with nine minutes to go, but an unlikely hero emerged. Lloyd Williams had not been expected to play much of a part in the tournament when he was named as the squad’s third scrum-half, a largely thankless task which usually involves playing against the group minnows and acting as a tackle bag in training.

When Hallam Amos was taken off with a dislocated shoulder after attempting to hand-off Farrell, Lloyd Williams replaced him on the left wing.

Virtually his first act was to sprint over the halfway line after Wales had, for virtually the first time in the match, created space out wide. Williams, realising he did not have the pace to get much further, chipped left-footed to the line, something anticipated by the scrum-half Gareth Davies, playing only because of Webb’s injury.

Davies made sure he stayed onside and easily won the race to the ball, skilfully picking it up from ankle height to touch down under the posts.

It looked like being a draw, which would have been fitting given the overall lack of quality, but Brown, who in the first-half picked a fight with Sam Warburton, conceded a soft penalty and up stepped Biggar to keep his date with destiny.

England: Brown; Watson, Barritt, Burgess (Ford 69), May; Farrell, B Youngs (Wigglesworth 49); Marler (M Vunipola 60), T Youngs (Webber 66), Cole (Brookes 71), Lawes (Launchbury ht), Parling, Wood, Robshaw (capt), B Vunipola (Haskell 62).

Try: May. Con: Farrell. Pens: Farrell 5. Drop goal: Farrell.

Wales: Liam Williams (Priestland 67); North, S Williams (Cuthbert 62), Roberts, Amos (Lloyd Williams 67); Biggar, G Davies; Jenkins, Baldwin (Owens 48), Francis (Lee 48), B Davies (Charteris 70), Lydiate (Tipuric 70), Warburton (capt), Faletau.

Pens: Biggar 6.

Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France)

Attendance: 81,129

Match rating: 8