They are easier to like these days: brave against all odds and more interested in attack than the defence that has defined them for so long, but the trouble is, being easy to like is usually an alternative to winning. Wales travelled east in search of a surprise to rank alongside their legendary mugging of England in the 2015 World Cup but were comprehensively bullied out of proceedings, doors slammed on them at every turn, a big ugly hand in their face throughout, at a longer arm’s length than heir own.
In the end it was a shoulder in the face – Manu Tuilagi’s in George North’s – with five minutes to go that earned Wales a measure of late relief. Tuilagi’s red card, two minutes after Ellis Genge’s yellow, afforded the visitors the luxury of a duck shoot and two bonus tries for a bonus point at the death. This defeat was nowhere near as close as a three-point deficit might suggest.
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