Clinical England dismantle dismal Wales
The Ruck
Reynolds Alfie
3.4 • 566 Ratings
🗓️ 7 February 2026
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
England got their 6 Nations campaign up and running with a ruthless 48-7 victory over Wales who endured a torrid day at Twickenham.
Alfie Reynolds, Will Kelleher and Elgan Alderman look back on all the action and discuss whether the result actually could have been worse for Wales who saw four players yellow carded. And, where do Steve Tandy's side can go from here as they welcome France to Cardiff next weekend?
They look ahead to England's trip to Edinburgh to face Scotland, chat about who impressed the most including Henry Arundell who scored a hat-trick and debate if the current Wales side are worse than the Italian team who went on a 30 game 6 Nations losing streak.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome back to The Ruck, the journalist's rugby podcast from The Times and the Sunday Times where we are recording this |
| 0:21.4 | on Saturday night in the gloom of Twickenham after England's opening match of the 2026 Six Nations. |
| 0:29.1 | 487. They beat Wales. I'm Alfie Reynolds alongside me in the gantry here. Once again is Elgin Alderman. |
| 0:36.7 | Elgin. Good evening. How are you? That was a delayed response and I think the voice of a man who is elgin alderman elgin good evening how are you that was a delayed response |
| 0:39.2 | and i think the voice of a man who is feeling a little bit dejected we'll get into that but also with us |
| 0:43.9 | is will keller hi you could have cleared up for us a bit rivers of guinness yeah we're swelling about our |
| 0:50.0 | feet up here you are standing just to the left of where a gu Guinness dropped right behind me in the position here. |
| 0:54.9 | And throughout the rest of the game, that was in the first half. |
| 0:56.6 | It was just slowly seeping towards all my equipment under the desk. |
| 1:00.0 | So that was my challenges for the day, but it pales in comparison to the challenges of Steve Tandy's men. |
| 1:07.5 | I'm actually quite proud of that. |
| 1:09.2 | Thank you for flagging that. I mean, |
| 1:11.7 | look, lads, we were together on Thursday and we spoke about the odds being so heavily in |
| 1:16.3 | England's favour and yes, we knew they should win. We understood they were the heavy favour |
| 1:20.7 | but thought that maybe it was a little bit too, two in England's favour. And boy, who wants to kick |
| 1:27.4 | us off |
| 1:27.7 | because they were absolutely bang on |
| 1:29.5 | the best thing I can say for Wales |
| 1:32.0 | is that the match felt a lot worse than 487 |
| 1:35.8 | which I think says it all because |
| 1:37.6 | that first half in particular |
| 1:40.1 | they were just atrocious |
... |
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