1. Wales 32 England 31 – Wembley, April 1999
From 1997 to 1999, while the Millennium Stadium was being constructed in Cardiff, Wales had to play their home rugby internationals at Wembley Stadium. It was not a particularly happy hunting ground for them. In their first five matches, they won only one and lost four, including a crushing defeat (0-51) to France. Their sixth and final game before returning to Wales, was to be against England in front of a crowd of 76,000.
Although Wales were already out of contention for the Five Nations, England were gunning for the championship. They had won their first three matches and were strong favourites to complete the Grand Slam. They were beginning to form into the side that would go on to win the World Cup, and had just introduced into their mix a particularly promising 19-year-old, a certain Jonny Wilkinson.
The match turned out to be an epic. England went into an early lead, but there was never much in it. Every time England looked like getting away, up stepped the unflappable Neil Jenkins to land another penalty and keep Wales in the game. Still, as the clock ticked towards the 78th minute England held a six-point advantage. They spurned an opportunity to kick a long penalty to clinch it, but still looked odds-on to complete the victory.
It was not to be. They gave up possession by kicking the ball to Wales, then conceded a penalty that enabled Wales to advance up the field. From the ensuing line-out, the ball made its way to No.8 Scott Quinnell who found Scott Gibbs running a superb line. One, two, three, four England players missed their tackles before Gibbs sidestepped 19-year old debutant Steve Hanley to apply the coup de grace. Gibbs, renowned as a bullocking centre had temporarily turned himself into a ballet dancer, or as Bill McLaren memorably put it, “He’s like the leader in a buffalo stampede”. It was only his sixth try in his 39th international but what a try.
Neil Jenkins still had to land his conversion to put Wales into the lead, but was never going to miss, landing his eighth successful kick out of eight. England had been denied the Grand Slam and, to add insult to injury, they didn’t even win the tournament, finishing second to Scotland on points difference.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47297172
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/intimate-memories-wales-stars-who-28931170
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/apr/03/my-favourite-game-wales-v-england-five-nations-1999
2. Scotland 13 England 7 – Murrayfield, March 1990
In 1990 Scotland met England at Murrayfield with a rare Grand Slam the potential prize for both. Scotland had started the tournament with narrow wins away to Ireland and Wales before benefiting from a sending off and a freak change of wind to convincingly beat France at home. England had brushed aside Ireland, France in Paris and Wales and were red-hot favourites (1-4 on) despite not having won the tournament since 1980.
Both teams desperately wanted the win but perhaps the Scots wanted it more. Not only were they up against the auld enemy and in their status of perennial underdog, but their desire had been sharpened by a backdrop of deep political hostility. Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government were in the process of imposing the hugely unpopular poll tax, and had decided to launch it in Scotland. The Scottish people, including a number of die-hard socialists within the rugby set-up, were not best pleased.
They still, though, needed to get past a very strong and hard England team. They had a clear plan. This was to start the game as aggressively as possible in the forwards, particularly targeting the England line-out, and to tackle like demons in the backs. They also wanted the crowd to act as 16th man and stage-managed a glacially slow walk onto the pitch, behind captain David Sole, as well as a rendition of Flower of Scotland (actually a relatively new tune, that was only sung for the second time in 1990) to get their supporters well and truly fired up.
The Scots gained momentum from the off, winning a scrum penalty that was converted by Craig Chalmers. England worked their way back but were undermined by the failure of New Zealand referee, David Bishop, to punish Scotland for repeatedly dropping the scrum on their own line. The Scotland try, by Tony Stanger, was also helped by an unusually friendly bounce. Sour grapes from an England fan? You bet!
So, Scotland famously won the Grand Slam and England did not. England didn’t have to wait long, winning the Grand Slam in both of the next two years, 1991 and 1992. Scotland are still waiting to win it again.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51394762
3. England 10 France 53 – Twickenham, March 2023
Steve Borthwick was not a universally popular choice when he was appointed England head coach in December 2022. Despite being forwards coach during a period of considerable success for the national team between 2015 and 2020, then leading Leicester to the Premiership title, he was seen by some as a little too establishment and a little too boring. Also, perhaps a little too close to the departing Eddie Jones.
His start was not auspicious. In the first Six Nations match, at home to Scotland, his England side managed to turn a winning position into defeat with sloppy play in the final 10 minutes. Things did perk up a little with wins at home to Italy and away to Wales, so when France arrived in West London for round four of the competition there was a degree of optimism from fans and followers.
France looked strong on paper, especially with Antoine Dupont at scrum-half, but had had a patchy campaign to date. An extremely close shave in Italy had been followed by defeat in Ireland then another squeaky win at home to Scotland. Their game, though, was to come together in the most magnificent fashion at Twickenham while England’s was to fall apart humiliatingly.
The tone was set with less than two minutes on the clock. A superb length of the field move through six pairs of hands ended in a try for Thomas Ramos. Two more first half tries came without reply including one on the stroke of half time. A try for England at the start of the second half proved to be a very false dawn, as France just ran away with it. England’s players were chasing shadows as the French ran in four more tries to inflict England’s biggest ever home defeat.
Such is the way of rugby union that just one year later England almost succeeded in gaining revenge on the French in Paris. Trailing by a point into the last minute of the game, it took a disputed penalty kick from the half-way line to bring France to victory on home soil. It would have been a consolation, but nothing can erase the terrible memory of defeat in 2023.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64928055
4. England 38 Scotland 38 – Twickenham, March 2019
By 2019 the English rugby public had not yet fallen out of love with coach Eddie Jones. The Australian had got off to a fantastic start with his adopted country, leading England to a record 18 consecutive victories between 2015-17. The gloss came off a little in 2018, when England finished a lowest-ever fifth in the Six Nations, but some solid performances in the Autumn Internationals meant his standing was still high come 2019.
In Rugby World Cup year there’s a risk that the Six Nations can be looked upon as a dress rehearsal, but there was no hint of that from England’s first two games – a convincing away win at the Aviva Stadium and a demolition of France at Twickenham. They looked good for a Grand Slam, but their hopes were dashed by a strong Welsh side, themselves on a long unbeaten run, at the Millennium Stadium. In fact, after Wales beat England in round three, they went on to complete two further victories to clinch the title and their own Grand Slam.
England actually remained in contention going into the final round of fixtures, but because Wales kicked off first on the final day, and won, the English knew they could only finish second when they kicked off against Scotland at Twickenham. They nevertheless set off in the mood of a team that wer determined to win. They set off like an express train and simply demolished Scotland in the first half. Tries for Nowell, Curry, Launchbury and May helped England into a 31-0 lead and only a consolation try by hooker McInally after a charge down, put Scotland on the board at the interval. It was inconceivable that the Scots could recover … or was it?
The second half represented one of the most extraordinary turn-arounds in any rugby match ever. England seemed to completely lose concentration and defensive discipline, and the Scots started just running through them. One Scottish try followed another without reply until the visitors had drawn level with a quarter of the game still remaining. With five minutes to go, Scottish centre Sam Johnson found more holes in the defence, and barrelled over to give his team a previously unimaginable lead. With the momentum of the game going one way only, it now seemed inevitable that the Scots would win.
From somewhere, though, England summoned up a last vestige of pride and determination, to which they added a seemingly-forgotten dose of competence. In the third minute of extra time, George Ford crossed for a try that he converted, and a draw had been rescued. It staved off what would have been one of the biggest humiliations in England rugby history, but it still left plenty of red faces.
https://www.six-nations-guide.co.uk/2019/england-v-scotland.html
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/mar/16/england-scotland-six-nations-match-report
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47598676
5. England vs Wales 1964 to 1979
Over the history of England vs Wales rugby internationals, it is England who hold the ascendancy with 69 wins to 61 (12 games having been drawn). This will come as a surprise to anyone who started watching rugby in the 1960s and ‘70s a period in which Wales were virtually unassailable.
In fact, over a 16 year period from 1964 to 1979, Wales defeated England 13 times, with only two draws and a single, solitary victory for England to grab hold of. The Welsh side of this era included a roll-call of all-time greats – Gareth Edwards, JPR Williams, John Dawes, Phil Bennett, Mervyn Davies and the much vaunted Pontypool front row – and were perennial winners of the Five Nations tournament. But they were beatable, it’s just that England almost never managed it. It actually took a remarkable 28 years (from 1963 to 1991) for England to beat Wales in Cardiff.
The one win in the 1970s came surprisingly in 1974 at Twickenham, when England were headed for the Wooden Spoon after defeats to Scotland and Ireland and a draw against France. Wales, meanwhile, needed a win for yet another championship. It was a scrappy and close affair that seemed to have gone Wales’ way, once again, when in the final minutes Welsh wing, JJ Williams chased a ball and fell onto it over the England line. Controversially, the referee did not believe that the ball had been grounded (the video referee was still many decades away) and England held on for a very rare and slightly lucky win.
For the rest of that period, it was unending misery and disappointment for the English. In recent years, England have more than made up for it, with a strong winning record against Wales, but for those who grew up in this period, there remains an ever-lasting inferiority complex and fear of the red jersey.