The Wales wing thought he had done enough

Wales wing Louis Rees-Zammit was controversially denied what would have been a phenomenal try against England after the TMO ruled that he had knocked on the ball.

After a tepid first half of action at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales ran riot after the break, scything through England’s defence. Two tries in ten minutes from Gareth Davies and George North, who finished the game playing at flanker, got the home side motoring and they almost had a spectacular third.

Read more: Wales Rugby World Cup squad

Replacement nine Tomos Williams injected plenty of pace and he set Rees-Zammit away after a cute wrap-around play at the scrum with Dan Biggar. Rees-Zammit kicked forward with Guy Porter chasing him down and used his pace to round England full-back Freddie Steward.

Rees-Zammit controversially denied

The TMO took a lengthy look at the footage (Amazon Prime)

It appeared like the Wales No 14 would run out of space but all those wearing red in the crowd and the man himself were convinced he had got it down in the nick of time. The first replays appeared to show he had grounded the ball just before the dead ball line.

However, upon further inspection the team of match officials decreed that there was just the slightest bit of separation between his hands and the ball before he grounded it.

As you can expect, the decision was not met favourably by the majority of the 65,802 fans in attendance.

Related: All the Rugby World Cup warm-ups

Wales finished the game as 20-9 winners and few could argue they were not worthy winners after a thoroughly dominant second-half display which kept England scoreless and without a try in the entire game.

For Steve Borthwick, he finished the day with many more questions than answers after far too many unforced errors including ten knock-ons.

Download the digital edition of Rugby World straight to your tablet or subscribe to the print edition to get the magazine delivered to your door.

Follow Rugby World on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.