England began their bid for Six Nations glory with a 48-7 defeat by Wales at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham.

After France beat Ireland in Thursday’s opener, England were tasked with underscoring their status as the title’s arch-rivals – a challenge they met with ruthlessness.

Wales were the architects of their own downfall, succumbing time and time again to England’s ruthless dominance, with Henry Arundel scoring a first-half hat-trick and Ben Earl crossing goal as the visitors were reduced to 13 men as Nicky Smith and Devi Lake were dismissed.

Expectations were at record lows as Wales traveled to Twickenham, but the crushing defeat – made all the more burdensome by second-half goals from Tom Roebuck and Tommy Freeman, as well as a penalty kick – provided Steve Tandy’s side a sobering reality check, exposing the enormity of the task at hand.

For Steve Borthwick and England, a comprehensive bonus-point victory – their 12th consecutive Test victory – provided the latest measure of continued progress ahead of next week’s Calcutta Cup clash with injured Scotland.

England puts regretful Wales to the sword

England had progressed at one point from the start. After an early penalty, George Ford misplaced a pass and Arundel scored his first goal from a corner kick, building a 10-0 lead inside eight minutes.

Prop Smith paid the price for Wales’ persistent foul play when he was sent to the bin in the 17th minute, followed 30 seconds later by his skipper Lake who cynically knocked him down, leaving the visitors with just 13 points.

It took England a few seconds to capitalize on their numerical advantage, with Ford and Arundel linking up again and the winger latching on to a cross-field pass from midfield and landing unimpeded for his second goal.

Wales ended up conceding 12 points without Smith and Lake, and Earle scored England’s third goal midway through the first half when he won a corner kick near the touchline.

Even with all supplies restored, there would be no respite for Wales. Fraser Dingwall seized on a mishandling error by the Wales backline and immediately passed the ball to Arundel, who quickly got rid of Aaron Wainwright to complete his hat-trick.

England got the job done early in the second half, with Tom Roebuck breaking through Wales to score the hosts’ fifth try.

Twickenham made his first substitute appearance since the death of his mother to pay tribute to England captain Maro Itoje.

But he was consigned to the bin just seconds after committing multiple fouls as Wales’ pressure mounted, and a goal finally came when Josh Adams landed a cross-field kick and avoided the visitors’ blushes.

Henry Pollock had a try canceled out for contact and England were awarded a penalty only after Taine Plumtree’s tackle on the forward was deemed high.

After seeing Luke Cowan-Dickie’s neck-turning score in the decider canceled out, Tommy Freeman sprinted over in the corner to add the final sparkle to England’s comfortable victory.

Ford: We left a little behind

Man of the match – England scrum-half George Ford – told ITV: “We’re obviously happy with the results and overall I think the performance is great.

“It was a bit frustrating too. We wanted to get off to a good start, a good performance and we got that.

“The start of a Test match is always important. The tactics in the first 10, 15, 20 minutes are about establishing yourself in the game and leaving your mark.

“We’re trying to put all the parts of the game together, we want a really good defensive campaign, kicking, set-pieces, all to give us attacking chances. The more we create, the more we can get.

“We’ll probably leave something behind today. Murrayfield is always tough but we’ll look forward to it. We always enjoy going there. We’ll try our best.”

What to do next?

England travel to Murrayfield to take on Scotland in the Calcutta Cup on February 14 at 4.40pm, while Wales face defending champions France in Cardiff on February 15 at 3.10pm.