James Haskell: The pain of defeat will drive England on

I was asked in the build up to the game with Wales: “Have the players who had been involved with the loss against Ireland two season’s ago taken lessons from that match?” And: “Was the preparation different under Stuart Lancaster?”
The answer to both those questions was “Yes” and “Yes”. Everything was done in the build-up to make sure we hit the ground running. The atmosphere, the training was all was spot on. The boys who had played against Ireland in 2011 knew the physical battle was where the game would be won or lost. It was no secret Wales were going to bring exactly the same intensity as the Irish did. That message was made loud and clear to everyone. An ambush was never going to happen.
Yet, despite all this, we were still beaten by a better, more powerful Welsh side on the day, who took every opportunity.
The preparation for this game may not have mirrored that of the 2011 game. The team may have been in a different place emotionally and physically, but the actual game in my opinion played out in almost exactly the same way.
In 2011 we were penalised heavily in the first 20 minutes; from scrums, an offside at a lineout, then penalties at the breakdown. Ireland took all these opportunities and before we knew it we where 9-0 down. Against Wales an extreme version of this occurred, in roughly the same 20 minutes, we received four scrum penalties and six breakdown penalties. When this happens, you are under the cosh; points down before you know it.
We talk a lot about emotional energy and how teams can feed off that. You could physically see Wales grow in confidence, become more aggressive, the more they seized control. Every penalty from the scrum, guys were getting-up and patting the front row on the back. Even the Welsh centres came running in to add their support. Just like in 2011 against the Irish we never recovered from this, never hit our straps and never enjoyed that critical and settling purple patch.
We all accept we didn’t get the psychical challenge right and that Wales played extremely well. They delivered their simple attack and defense with great accuracy and intensity. We didn’t.
I am never one to hark on about officials, as frankly a game should never be allowed to come down to a series of random decisions. But, in a genuinely balanced view, I was extremely disappointed in certain aspects of the officiating on Saturday. In particular from a back row player’s point of view, at the breakdown.
There was much talk about the scrum and all the issues there. Like most sensible people I have no idea what really is going on in the arena of dark arts, aka the front row!
However my gripe, aside from the glaring officiating errors that led to one of Wales’ tries, was the general lack of consistency throughout the match. How can England, who had eight penalties in one match and five in another, suddenly lose the plot and be penalised into very high double figures?
The answer is, it just doesn’t happen at this level, unless things are being interpreted extremely differently between one referee and another. The consequence of this was we could never get in the game and everything we did seemed to spark a penalty or a free kick. Players become very conscious about perceived inconsistencies. It naturally affects and inhibits their game and style of play. You’re afraid to over-compete. You hesitate to take a chance. You’re on the back foot and it becomes almost impossible to break the cycle, especially when the whistle keeps blowing.
Rest assured, everyone involved last weekend will privately reflect on what might have been. The pain of defeat. The sense of disappointment of having inadvertently let down the fans and the nation aligned to the burning desire to never allow such a thing to happen again.
England will be back and back with a vengeance!