Jonny May at the double as England beat determined Wales to keep their Grand Slam hopes alive

England 12 Wales 6: May’s pair of dazzling first-half tries saw England maintain their perfect start and ripped up Wales’s hopes of any Triple Crown or Grand Slam this season

Jonny May scored both of England's tries (Getty)

Jonny May’s pair of dazzling first-half tries helped England edge the next step towards the retention of their Six Nations Championship title, and ripped up Wales’s hopes of any Triple Crown or Grand Slam this season.

Wales were never quite shaken off by England in their brave bid to upset the back-to-back champions, while the home team were also left nursing injuries to young guns Sam Simmonds and Anthony Watson as they take a short breather now before the trip to Scotland in a fortnight’s time.

Wales were mostly full of guts and effort, and their lock Cory Hill consistently showed up well in the line-out.

And the pace and power on display made both teams’ first-round routs of Italy, in England’s case, and Scotland in Cardiff look like gentle pre-season warm-ups, and demonstrated the gulf that can exist within this otherwise uber-parochial competition.

But the challenge this England are laying before every opponent – particularly here at their precious citadel, where they remain unbeaten since the 2015 World Cup – was summed up in a sequence of 17 or 18 phases with 10 minutes or so left.

It did not lead to any points score but the presence of so many heavy forwards in white jerseys able to use a bit of footwork and foot speed made the scale of the physical effort needed by Wales in response dauntingly clear.

The crucial aerial tussles also went England’s way, thanks to the likes of Watson skilfully chasing the probings of George Ford and Owen Farrell.

The Saturday-morning withdrawal of full-back Leigh Halfpenny with a foot infection took the Scarlets’ contingent in Wales’s starting team down to nine, and removed Wales’s front-line kicker, with 163 penalty goals and 56 conversions for his country.

It left Rhys Patchell, who was the target of withering scrutiny from England coach Eddie Jones in the build-up, with the extra burden of kicking and just the three Test points in the memory bank of the fly-half, from a penalty goal in the first of his seven caps, versus Japan in 2013.

Gareth Anscombe started in Halfpenny’s position, and the match began with a double whammy, as Watson was stripped of the kick-off ball by Alun Wyn Jones and Josh Navidi, and England’s captain Dylan Hartley went for a concussion assessment after a head-to-head clash with Wales prop Samson Lee.

While Hartley was off, with Jamie George on, England went ahead in the third minute. Danny Care’s box-kick was flipped backby Watson, ahead of Patchell, and Farrell, following up, spied a gaping area of space on the left wing, and did not fluff the chance, sending a right-footed bouncing kick into just the right spot for the very rapid May to scoop the ball up and slide in for a try as Josh Adams covered in vain.

May dives over for England's first try (Getty)

Patchell missed a 45-metre penalty, narrowly wide, and although Aaron Shingler nicked a line-out from Courtney Lawes, there was a ferocious tempo about England that sent thrilled ripples round the majority of the sell-out crowd.

Hartley returned then Simmonds and the fired-up Farrell carried hard and fast near the posts as the preamble to England’s second try, superbly crafted on the wide left.

Farrell flung a long pass to Joe Launchbury who had Patchell and another Welsh tackler on his back yet still fashioned a lovely, deft offload inside for the waiting May to dot down his 12th try in his 31st Test. And Farrell converted for 12-0 after 19 minutes.

The unrelenting drama continued with two controversial flashpoints as Wales had a big claim for a try at the corner turned down – Anscombe was ruled via the television match official to have just nudged on rather than making a clean grounding as he and Watson dived for a ball that bounced off Steff Evans from Patchell’s cross-kick. The margin involved was a matter of millimetres and not even multiple replays could make it wholly conclusive.

Anscombe was denied a try (Getty)

At least Wales knew they had a penalty pending, and Patchell knocked it over to trim England’s lead to 12-3.

Then a mini-brawl sparked by Farrell exchanging words on the ground with Wales scrum-half Gareth Davies saw Lions tour pals Maro Itoje and Alun Wyn Jones in a stand-up wrestle, proving how summer friendships can unravel when circumstances demand.

It felt like a seminal moment when Farrell cleared Ken Owens out of a ruck and all the Wales and Lions hooker could muster was a plaintive wave to the nearby assistant referee.

England took further injury blows as tyro No.8 Simmonds hurt his right arm just before half-time and Watson twisted his right knee as he made a slashing change of direction early in the second half.

Simmonds was forced off injured (Getty)

The wonderfully versatile Chris Robshaw switched from flanker to fill in at the base of the next scrum, in which Wales found some momentum and gained a penalty against the home side’s pack swivelling in retreat.

The position came to nothing for Wales, who in the absence of umpteen Lions, and in clod and wet conditions, were finding it so much harder than the previous week’s rout of Scotland to keep the ball in hand while making any significant territory.

George North entered the fray with 55 minutes played, as Patchell was substituted and Anscombe took over at fly-half.

Wales must have hoped North would bring some kind of second wind, but Ford – whose earlier leaping challenge into Patchell had epitomised England’s full-in attitude – protected the nine-point lead with a sumptuous touch-finder across the field, then his midfield mate Farrell forced a turnover in the next play.

North enjoyed a lively cameo (Getty)

Wales kept coming, and had an overlap briefly at four-on-one, with Hadleigh Parkes, Owens and North feeding Scott Williams to get beyond Mike Brown – but the centre gambled on a headlong dive a few metres short and was denied by a combination of not getting the slide he had hoped for, plus a superb, lunging arm round his waist by Simmonds’s replacement Sam Underhill.

With five minutes remaining, Wales edged closer to the kind of scintillating turnaround they made here during the last World Cup, and a penalty against Brown for slowing ball down was landed by Anscombe: 12-6.

But England held on with Brown named man of the match and coach Jones, who had predicted a tight encounter, hailing a "good old-fashioned Test match."

Scorers:

England: tries: May 2; conversion: Farrell.

Wales: penalties: Patchell, Anscombe.

England: M Brown; A Watson (J Nowell 45), J Joseph, O Farrell, J May; G Ford (B Te’o 68), D Care (R Wigglesworth 65); M Vunipola (A Hepburn 76), D Hartley (capt; J George 1-11), D Cole (H Williams 65), J Launchbury (G Kruis 68), M Itoje, C Lawes, C Robshaw, S Simmonds (S Underhill 41).

Wales: G Anscombe (G North 56); J Adams, S Williams, H Parkes, S Evans; R Patchell, G Davies (A Davies 67); R Evans (W Jones 58), K Owens (E Dee 65), S Lee (T Francis 58), C Hill (B Davies 74), AW Jones (capt), A Shingler, J Navidi, R Moriarty (J Tipuric 65).

Referee: J Garces (France)

Official attendance 82,000