Henry Arundell scored a first-half hat-trick as England completely outclassed Wales to start their Six Nations campaign with an emphatic 48-7 victory at Twickenham on Saturday.

A year on from earning their biggest margin of victory over Wales in the tournament, England were once again a cut above at HQ as Steve Tandy's first Six Nations game as Wales coach was riddled by a number of needless penalties and four sin-binnings.

Indeed, George Ford had already put three points on the board by the time Arundell went over as the hosts worked it wide from a close-range penalty.

Wales' ill-discipline saw both Nicky Smith and captain Dewi Lake sent to the bin, and Arundell caught Ford's cross-field kick to touch down in the corner, before Ben Earl rolled Ellis Mee on the left wing to crash over.

Arundell then had his second England hat-trick by brilliantly skipping down the left flank, and Ford nailed a third first-half conversion to make it 29-0 at the break.

Fraser Dingwall teed up Tom Roebuck to walk in for another score five minutes after the restart, but Wales got on the board themselves when Josh Adams slid over from Dan Edwards' kick shortly after England captain Maro Itoje went into the bin just a minute after entering the fray.

Wales then lost Ben Thomas to the sin-bin for an illegal rip, though, and a penalty try was awarded to England when Taine Plumtree dragged Henry Pollock to touch by the neck in the corner – resulting in a miserable fourth yellow card.

Tom Curry was also carded late on, but Tommy Freeman scored a seventh try late on for England, who have now racked up 12 straight wins under Steve Borthwick.

Job done #GuinnessM6N | #ENGvWAL pic.twitter.com/1JfimEdE3Q

— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) February 7, 2026

Data Debrief: Wales pay the penalty as England run continues

Wales' cause was absolutely blighted by their poor discipline, and their four yellow cards was the joint-most they have received in a Test (also four against South Africa in Pretoria in 2022).

It certainly contributed heavily to a 12th straight defeat in the Six Nations, with their last win coming away to Italy in 2023.

It continues their longest run without victory in any iteration of the Championship, having never previously lost more than eight consecutive matches.

England, meanwhile, are in fine form and have not lost since losing the opening round of last year's tournament to Ireland. They are on their best winning run since clocking up 18 in a row between 2015 and 2017.

They have now moved level with Ireland for the most wins from opening Six Nations games (19), having lost five of their previous six round-one matches prior to this.