Wales Captain Dewi Lake Reflects on Defeat
Dewi Lake, who will join Gloucester next season from Ospreys, expressed disappointment after Wales' 48-7 loss to England in the Six Nations.
Lake acknowledged that the team let both themselves and the Welsh public down in the match.
"We said at the end of the game that we let ourselves down and people at home down," said Lake.
"We spoke all week about what we were going to produce and we didn't do it.
"There's no other way to say it, there's no point just talking about things.
"We're massively disappointed with what we put on the field today."
Discipline Issues Continue to Affect Wales
England demonstrated high intensity from the start, with Wales conceding 16 penalties and playing with just 13 men on two occasions.
Ten penalties were conceded in the first half alone. Prop Nicky Smith and hooker Dewi Lake received yellow cards within a minute of each other. In the second half, centre Ben Thomas and replacement flanker Taine Plumtree were also sin-binned.
Plumtree's yellow card marked his sixth of the season and third sin-binning in three games for Wales.
"Our discipline in the first 20 minutes was poor," Lake admitted.
"We were down to 13 men for nearly 20 minutes and against a team like England, that's going to be hard. It's hard to come back from 29-0 down."
Under head coach Steve Tandy, Wales have conceded 65 penalties in five games, including 10 yellow cards and one red card. Tandy acknowledged the issue as a developing trend.
"We're hard on ourselves and we've got refereeing teams of three coming in to training," said Tandy.
"It's something you've can't run away or hide from.
We'll go back, look at it and the reasons why, learn as a group why we feel we're under that type of pressure and giving away those sorts of penalties."
England's Dominance and Wales' Struggles
England scored seven tries, with Arundell achieving a hat-trick, further compounding Wales' difficulties in the match.
Wales' Recent International Form and Upcoming Challenges
Since the 2023 World Cup, Wales have recorded 22 defeats in 24 Tests, with only two wins against Japan in 2025.
Their last Six Nations victory was 1,064 days ago, a win against Italy in Rome in March 2023. This recent defeat marks their 12th consecutive loss in the tournament.
Wales are set to host tournament favourites France in Cardiff in eight days. The team has not won a home Six Nations match since beating Scotland in February 2022.
Ticket sales for the three home games have been slow, with thousands still available for the upcoming match against Les Bleus.
"Every voice matters to us at the minute, every fan that can get behind us," Lake said.
"We know we're going to be better next week. We've spoken a lot about wanting to excite a nation.
"We didn't do it today but we've got another four games in this tournament."
Lake emphasized the squad's effort despite the quality gap against England.
"This group will fight for each other all day," Lake stated.
"There's no question of effort. It's not hard to get that out of this group or keep these players going.
"They love wearing this jersey and want to work hard.
"That's why this group is special. For us, it's about turning it into accuracy and flipping that into our favour."
Addressing Off-Field Challenges
Welsh rugby is currently facing off-field difficulties, including threats to cut a professional men's side by the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) and concerns over the future of the Ospreys as a professional team.
Lake was one of four Ospreys players in the 23-man match-day squad, with four additional players in the extended 39-man group.
Despite these challenges, Lake insisted that the team could not use such issues as excuses for their performance against England.
"It's not good enough to use that as an excuse for today," Lake said.
"There is a space which is open for the boys if they want to discuss it.
"We have spoken about it as a group but the boys have their heads down wanting to do their best for Wales."
