Triple Crown joy for duo

By Mark Stevens

The fledgling international career of Exeter Chiefs star Jack Nowell hit new heights today as he helped England to become Triple Crown winners for 2014 with victory over Wales in the Six Nations.

Stuart Lancaster's side recorded a third successive victory in the competition as they overcame the Welsh 29-18 at a sold-out Twickenham.

Danny Care and Luther Burrell scored the home tries, whilst fly-half Owen Farrell converted both, as well as five penalties to maintain the pressure on leaders Ireland.

Wales countered with six penalties from Leigh Halfpenny, but it was never enough to dampen the English, who claimed their first Triple Crown since the World Cup winning year of 2003.

Nowell, who was making his fourth international start, was delighted with the outcome at the final whistle and is now hopeful of finishing the job off next weekend against Italy in Rome.

"It's an amazing feeling to be crowned Triple Crown champions because it's something the boys have worked so hard for," said the 20-year-old winger. "To come away with it is absolutely massive."

In balmy spring sunshine at English Rugby HQ, England ran in first half tries from Care and Burrell, only for five penalties from the faultless Leigh Halfpenny to keep the score to 20-15 at the break.

But similar kicking excellence from Farrell punished an error-strewn Welsh performance as Lancaster's rapidly developing side produced another display of rich promise.

"We went out there and backed ourselves from the start," explained Nowell. "It was good to see DC go over so early and we just built from there."

As expected, the Welsh did come storming back and Truro-born Nowell, who was joined on the field for the final few minutes by club-mate Tom Johnson, said it was vital that England stayed alive to the threat.

"We knew Wales would kick a lot, but it's just that decision what to do at the right time," he said. "I would have liked to run everything, but sometimes you have to pin them back in corner and that's what we did. It was nice the coaches gave me a little chat before hand and told me to do what is best for the team."

With Italy next up in the final fixture of this season's competition, England not only have to overcome the Azzurri on their own turf, but hope that France can do them a favour against the Irish.

"We will do some work on this game over the next couple of days, but then it will get put to bed and we'll look to the Italy game," continued Nowell. "Like always we'll take all the positives - as there are a lot - and we'll take that to Italy.

"We know what we have do from our perspective, so we'll have a good week this week and take it from there."