Last Updated: Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:56
Martin Johnson has praised his England side for not succumbing to a Wales fightback in Saturday's 30-17 win at Twickenham.
England looked on course for a comfortable win in their Six Nations opener when they led 20-3 early in the second half after converted tries from James Haskell and Danny Care with the Welsh being down to 14 men following the sin-binning of Alun Wyn Jones.
However in scenes similar to Wales' 2008 win at Twickenham, when they stormed from behind to claim the spoils, the visitors got the score back to 20-17 thanks to tries from Adam Jones and James Hook. However, on this occasion, James Haskell scored a breakaway try to seal the win for England five minutes from time to leave Johnson pleased.
"Our defending got a bit narrow at times but ultimately we finished it off," he told BBC Sport.
"Two years ago in similar circumstances we lost this game. I think both teams will get a lot better but 30 points against Wales is a pretty good start."
Johnson added: "I thought we played well. At times we didn't and we let them back into it but I'm happy with the way the guys responded.
"There is a lot of pressure and hype for these games and we probably tried to play a bit too much at times.
"We lost our way a bit in the middle of the second half and gave them a chance to come back into it."