Here are England's player ratings after Saturday's narrow 16-14 Six Nations win over Wales at Twickenham.
15 Freddie Steward: A spectacular performance from the fullback. As usual, Steward was great under the high ball, but there were also some great moments in attack. 8
14 Tommy Freeman: It's been much quieter than last weekend. I didn't have a chance to actually run it, but it was a useful option for chasing. Five
defensive work on
13 Henry Slade: He is looking to get things moving on both sides of the ball, although his defense is still a work in progress, with Wales exploiting that channel on several occasions. Five
12 Fraser Dingwall: Not a huge threat, but a smart operator. He's a good try scorer and a good distributor on the gain line, but he needs to show more in the rest of the Six Nations. 6
11 Elliot Daly: Better from the wings. Great skill under pressure to get Dingwall out, his chasing game was on point and he had some great breaks too. 6
Reverse Wales kick pin
10 George Ford: The offense still needed a lot of work and had too many passes going up the floor, but he took control of that game in the final 25 minutes. 7
9 Alex Mitchell: Another good performance from scrum half. He does the fundamentals really well, especially his kicking which gets England out of trouble. But we're still waiting for him to really spark. 7
Planet rugby player evaluation key
8 Ben Earl: Following his excellent performance at the World Cup, he continues to perform well as number 8. He scored some big carries, including a great try, and was also a strong defensive presence. 8
7 Sam Underhill: There are some big players on defense. This new rearguard is ideal, but one wonders whether England need more poachers in the back row. 7
6 Ethan Roots: Last week was a great debut, but this time it wasn't so good. All he had to do was lift them up when he got on the ball, so the yellow card was unnecessary. Four
5 Olly Chetham: We thought the yellow card was a bit harsh, but certainly on the lower end of the spectrum. And although he was subsequently sent off with a HIA, he showed a solid effort with some great moments after the break. 6
Relentless Malo
4 Maro Itoje: Good again from the lock. He led England's defense alongside Underhill and was everywhere throughout the match. 7
3 Will Stewart: Solid in the scrum, a handy carry option in the loose, and made some decent dents in this match, but didn't quite nail the starting tighthead shirt for us. 6
2 Jamie George (c): Despite some problems with the lineout, Hooker was excellent at set pieces and made a number of tackles. There are also some better carry jobs. 6
1 Joe Marler: Thanks to some clever (perhaps underhanded) tactics from the Welshman, scrums were less important while he was on the field. Five
Replacement: What came out had an impact. Ellis Genge and Dan Cole won a few scrum penalties, Alex Coles and Chandler Cunningham-South were a threat in defense, while Theo Dunn played only limited minutes. He showed a great performance again. 7
read more: England are 2-2 in the Six Nations and will dig deep to beat quagmire Wales.
