Wales captain Dewi Lake says that his side let themselves and the public down during their 48-7 Six Nations defeat to England on Saturday.

Wales conceded seven tries and were shown four yellow cards – including Lake himself – as they were defeated in the opening game of the tournament for the fifth season in a row.

“We said at the end of the game that we let ourselves down and people at home down,” said Lake.

“We spoke all week about what we were going to produce and we didn’t do it.

“There’s no other way to say it, there’s no point just talking about things.

“We’re massively disappointed with what we put on the field.”

Wales conceded 16 penalties in total, with nine given away in the first twenty minutes. Trailing 29-0 at halftime, former Wales flyhalf Dan Biggar criticised the first-half performance, describing it as “nowhere near good enough for international rugby.”

Prop Nicky Smith and hooker Lake shown yellow cards within a minute of each other, while centre Ben Thomas and replacement flanker Taine Plumtree were then sent to the sin-bin in the second half.

It was Plumtree’s sixth yellow card of the season and his third sin-binning in three games for Wales.

“Our discipline in the first 20 minutes was poor,” added Lake.

“We were down to 13 men for nearly 20 minutes and against a team like England, that’s going to be hard. It’s hard to come back from 29-0 down.”

Wales came into this tournament with regional uncertainty and fan protests, with Ospreys under threat of no longer existing as a professional entity.

Lake, an Ospreys captain, said that the camp is an “open space” for the players – including eight Ospreys – to talk about the upheaval.

“It’s not good enough to use that as an excuse,” said Lake.

“There is a space which is open for the boys if they want to discuss it.

“We have spoken about it as a group but the boys have their heads down wanting to do their best for Wales.”

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