Wales arrived at the Allianz as lambs ready for the slaughter

Glimmers of hope would do. Any signs on this long, gruelling road back to relevancy for Wales that they can somehow be competitive on the field amid the utter chaos off it, with their most successful region, the Ospreys, facing the axe.

The first three games of the autumn – the less said about the 73-0 defeat by South Africa the better – suggested that Wales were putting in the foundations for a functional attack, an area overseen by the highly-regarded coach Matt Sherratt. More time together running the system for Tomos Williams, arguably Wales’ best player with Jac Morgan out injured, and the young but talented Dan Edwards at fly-half will only be a good thing.

Louis Rees-Zammit at full-back? Pat Lam, his coach at Bristol Bears, believes No 15 is the former NFL player’s best position. A rare moment of comic relief in an otherwise miserable first half for Wales came when Rees-Zammit side-stepped Henry Arundell with such ease that the England wing was rooted to the spot, searching for where Rees-Zammit had disappeared.

Having the right attitude and intent is obviously a must but Wales’ skill levels stood out as well last November, particularly a try for Tom Rogers created by sharp passing from centres Joe Hawkins and Max Llewellyn against New Zealand, stretching the All Blacks apart.

The only issue being that Wales turned up to Allianz Stadium with a backline unrecognisable from that All Blacks game, with that unfamiliarity manifesting in Ben Thomas’s pass for Rees-Zammit finding only grass, inviting Arundell to race away for his hat-trick try. New connections will need time.

Steve Borthwick, the England head coach, predicted that Wales would pitch up at Twickenham and see if they could kick the leather off the ball. To do that they would actually need to have the ball in the first place. England suffocated their visitors in the possession and territory stakes early on, building an insurmountable lead.

Messing up a tapped penalty five metres from England’s line, due to failing actually to tap the ball in the first place, is just desperate stuff, summing up a first half that Wales finished trailing 29-0 to tie their largest-ever half-time deficit in Test match rugby.

Still, when you are conceding an average of 50 points per game as Wales did last November, the efficiency of your attack is the least of your problems. George Ford’s final conversion hitting the post stopped Wales matching that ­half-century average.

Perhaps the biggest question mark at the moment is not about Wales’ spirit or their hunger, but their physicality. Can they live with the top sides in those collisions, in the set-piece, when the game goes to dark places? They did not survive those areas in the autumn and nothing has changed entering spring.

The run of penalties which led to two yellow cards in the opening quarter stemmed from English pressure, refusing to give Wales an outlet to escape. This was going to be enough of a challenge for Wales with 15 players on the field. Down to 13 they were lambs to the slaughter, with Ben Thomas and Taine Plumtree later taking the number of Welsh yellow cards to four.

The indiscipline caused by being under the pump is not ideal, but understandable. Whereas giving away two obstruction penalties in the opening 10 minutes – soft penalties, careless indiscretions – are a total coach killer. As the former Wales full-back Liam Williams posted on social media: “10 penalties in 20 mins is madness.” The opinion-dividing in-game adverts from ITV during scrums at least gave Welsh viewers some respite from the unfolding massacre.

Their try, Wales’ first Test points in more than 130 minutes, was refreshingly sharp, finding Josh Adams in another parish with a cross-field chip by Edwards after a spell of consistent pressure. Being “nilled” in consecutive Tests after the South Africa humiliation would have been tough to take. At least Wales swerved that ignominy. But after the earlier events of the day in Rome, even the Italy fixture on the final day looks ominous.

No question, the right moves within camp are being made to unite a young squad. In a recent conversation with Wales head coach Steve Tandy he stressed the importance of Wales playing with freedom, with a game plan to fall back on in the tougher moments. An environment is, hopefully, being steadily built off the field for players to express themselves and to be brave, which seems to be the buzzword for this era.

In the long run it may pay off, who knows. But Wales never stood a chance here. It felt at times, when Wales could not escape their 22 and were giving up penalty after penalty, like the players knew it.

There are so many aspects of their game to revive and rebuild. On this evidence – and given that England switched off for patches of the second half and still won by a healthy margin – it will take years for this gap to close. If it ever does again. For the sake of the sport, you desperately hope so.

Photograph by Shaun Botterill/Getty