No excuses from the England camp

England coach Andy Robinson offered no excuses after his side came unstuck in Cardiff, losing their opening Six Nations fixture 11-9 to a vibrant Welsh performance.

"Wales deserved to win what was a mistake-ridden game," said Robinson.

"We struggled with our field position and getting the ball through two or three phases.

"We got ourselves back in the game in the second half and we played better in the second half, but it was one of those games that was going to come down to mistakes and penalty kicks.

"We made one or two silly errors in the final 10 minutes, and Wales made fewer errors than us."

Robinson refused to elaborate on the yellow card shown to England lock Danny Grewcock who was sin-binned just before half-time for use of the boot on Wales scrum-half Dwayne Peel.

"From what I saw, I thought Danny was trying to step over the ruck and I don't think it was a deliberate act of kicking him in the head - I will have to look at the tape," he said.

England fly-half Charlie Hodgson said the inexperienced team had got caught up in the occasion.

"We showed a few nerves what with it being our first game and there being a few new combinations out there," Hodgson told BBC Sport.

"I don't think you can make too many excuses though.

"Full credit to Wales - they put us under a lot of pressure and I think they were the better side."

England left the Millennium Stadium with their tails between their legs, having lost seven of their last 12 internationals, and it will be a test for Robinson and his players how they now respond ahead of facing France in just eight days' time.