MIKE BROWN: England will have to go up several levels if they want to beat Ireland or France

After my comments last week that no Welsh player would get in a combined England and Wales side, I must admit I was feeling pretty smug when Alex Dombrandt’s try made it 17-0.

Then, as Wales mounted a late comeback, I got pretty nervous. I was panicking a bit at the end! I thought it was going to be a rerun of the 2015 World Cup game all over again!

I got plenty of stick from Welsh fans on social media for what they saw as an attack on their players, but I’ve got to give credit where it’s due to some of their squad now.

Taulupe Faletau put in an unbelievable shift. For him to play like that after so long out injured was remarkable. He played like the Faletau I remember facing when he was at his peak.

Alex Cuthbert also looked back to his best. He’s had a lot of flak from Welsh fans and spent a long time away from Test rugby, but his performance at Twickenham was superb.

For him to make 176 metres from 14 carries is unbelievable. I also thought Tomos Williams – who I’m a big fan of – came into the game late on with the speed of his play.

Cuthbert would definitely make my combined team from the sides which played yesterday and the other two would come close. I’m happy to eat humble pie on that!

Alex Cuthbert looked back to his best as he made an unbelievable 176 metres from 14 carries

But it still wasn’t enough for a Welsh victory. England did just enough to come out on top and keep their Six Nations title hopes alive. But they will have to go up several levels if they are to trouble Ireland and France in the next few weeks.

I thought that from the 50-minute mark, England looked tired. It was the same against Italy in Rome.

I’m not inside the camp, but I do know from working under Eddie Jones that his sessions are incredibly tough. They have to be because Test rugby is a big step up from the club game.

But maybe Eddie will have to look at the way he prepares the side because in the second half, England’s dominant hits disappeared, their line speed decreased, and I thought the energy and physicality they had in the first half dropped off.

Wales began to get on top as a result and ended up outscoring England by three tries to one.

Eddie Jones must prepare his side better if they are to avoid burning out in the second half 

That’s a worry because it won’t be as easy for England to stay on top of Ireland and France as they did against Wales.

England built a nice score without playing much rugby in the first half. In the second quarter, we started to see more of what Eddie wants from the team.

The forwards were direct and dominant in their carries.

That was when we started to see Marcus Smith come into the game and look dangerous. Unfortunately, we didn’t see it often enough over the 80 minutes.

It was a big call from Eddie to start Harry Randall over the record-breaking Ben Youngs, but I thought he had a very good game. Randall has emerged as a player who is genuine competition for Ben.

Dombrandt was also superb and he could easily have been man of the match.

Ben Youngs made his 115th appearance for England, breaking Jason Leonard’s caps record

I’d like to pass on my congratulations to Ben for breaking Jason Leonard’s caps record which is an amazing achievement. He’s a great guy who deserves such an accolade.

England are still in the hunt for the Six Nations title. But it will take something very special from them to deny France the title and they must beat Ireland at Twickenham to give themselves a chance. France are undoubtedly the team to beat. They showed against Scotland they have an all-court game which is on a different level to any other side in this Six Nations.

England aren’t at that level yet consistently, but they are developing and showed against South Africa in the autumn they can upset big teams. I’m excited to see how they go against the two form sides in this Six Nations.