Edwards savours victory over England

As both sets of supporters left Twickenham barely able to comprehend how Wales had managed to beat England, divine intervention seemed as good a theory as any.

Wales had taken a pasting for nearly an hour and trailed 19-6 before storming back to score 20 unanswered points and win at Twickenham for the first time since 1988.

England will spend the next 48 hours searching for answers – perhaps they will find them written in the stars.

James Hook was named the official man of the match but 300 miles away in Wigan, Shaun Edwards’ mother Phyllis sat convinced the honour should have gone upstairs.

It was an emotional day for Edwards, who made a victorious international coaching debut on what would have been his late brother’s 25th birthday.

“It was emotional and it was a very difficult day for my mother. I am thankful that these lads were able to put a smile on her face,” said Edwards.

“I rang her after the match and she said that when we were losing she went to the cemetery and prayed. She came out and we won!

“You know what mothers are like. It was all down to her!”

The power of prayer has always been important to Edwards, whose faith helped him through the grief of Billy Joe’s death in a car crash four years ago.

But he is also a practical man – and the one emotion that was not difficult to bear yesterday was victory, even though it came against his native England.

“I was totally focused on my job,” said Edwards. “I am more elated by the fact my own international career has begun and the way these lads have worked hard over the last two weeks, they deserved that result.

“I always thought we were in with a chance but I didn’t think we could afford to go behind. I probably under-estimated the strength of character in this squad.”

Edwards’ recruitment by the Welsh Rugby Union had dominated the build-up to the game. The Wasps coach was hired on a part-time basis after England had failed to offer him a suitable position.

The Rugby Football Union were widely criticised for only offering Edwards, the Wasps head coach who has won three Premiership titles and two Heineken Cups, a role with the second-string England Saxons.

Edwards has ambitions to be involved with the 2009 Lions and wanted experience of “full international rugby”.

With the Saxons job a non-starter, Edwards accepted the opportunity to join Warren Gatland, a long-standing friend from their time at Wasps, in the Wales set-up.

And that decision returned to haunt the RFU at the first opportunity yesterday.

As England crumbled in the last 20 minutes, the Welsh players credited Edwards’ impact in turning them from World Cup dead-beats to conquerors of Twickenham.

“A winning mentality is a huge part of it and that has come from Shaun and Warren. We are the same players but we showed a lot of maturity in closing the game out,” said flanker Martyn Williams.

The Gatland and Edwards coaching team are turning Twickenham into a fortress of their own, breaking Wales’ 20-year hoodoo at the same ground that Wasps clinched three league titles and the 2004 Heineken Cup.

“You have got to do it in the big occasions,” said Edwards.

“Fortunately the players I have coached have proven so far that the more the pressure, the more they like it.

“We will be critical of our first-half performance. How can you improve if you are not critical in a constructive manner?

“We showed we do have some steel in the team. We regrouped at half-time and then played some rugby.”