"We just let ourselves down"- Mason Grady's honest reaction to Six Nations hammering by England

Sunday, 08 February 2026 at 19:10

byHarry Tovey

Wales and Cardiff Rugby’s Mason Grady made his first international appearance since facing Fiji in November 2024. The 23-year-old also made his first Six Nations appearance in three years, which was Wales’ last triumph in the championship back in 2023 against Italy.

However, on Saturday afternoon in south-west London, when Grady replaced winger Ellis Mee after 52 minutes, the game had already been lost. The scoreboard read a torrid 36-0 for his side, with England flying at Allianz Stadium.

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It was expected that Steve Borthwick’s side would have had too much for Wales to compete in the contest, but with four yellow cards, the visitors were their worst enemies. England were ruthless in their 48-7 dispatching of Wales.

“Really disappointed, I don’t think that we give a good account of ourselves,” said Grady.

“We went into this game thinking that we were in with a real chance of winning.

“Our training week had been really good, and we just let ourselves down today.

“Probably second best to everything, our discipline definitely didn’t help in that first half.

“I thought we put ourselves under the pump, and it was too late by the end.

“Defending with 13 men is so hard, and attacking is even harder.”

Henry Arundell claimed a first-half hat-trick, which inspired the third-best team in the world to their 12th consecutive Test match win.

It’s heartbreaking for a side that spoke a lot about aggression, with Josh Macleod highlighting in the week that Twickenham would have been a ‘warzone’, but it wasn’t quite that. It was a mismatch.

Dewi Lake, Nicky Smith, Ben Thomas, and Taine Plumtree all received yellow cards; these ill-disciplined acts have been substantially on the rise in recent outings for Wales. Since Steve Tandy has taken the helm as Wales head coach, the penalty count has doubled from his first against Argentina in November.

On whether Wales will have enough time to resolve these issues, Grady highlighted the importance of getting the penalty count against England, 16, below 10, and says it’s an easy fix in training.

“It’s something we can work on in training, and in training, we’ve been really good at, not too sure what happened today.

“It’s definitely something that we’re going to have to look at, and be hard on ourselves, not just the coaches, but us as boys as well. I personally think it’s an easy fix.

“We got a look back at a lot of stuff; it’s just the penalties that let us down, really. We couldn’t get into the game.”

Players, and it must be said afterwards, were demonstrating clearly how much of a toll this bruising defeat had on them. Winger Josh Adams, speaking to S4C, was on the verge of tears, and Dewi Lake spoke honestly about letting his nation down.

Despite that, Grady spoke following the contest about optimism heading into the remaining four matches of the tournament, with France travelling to the Welsh capital next Sunday.

“Every game is tough in the Six Nations now,” continued Grady.

“They (France) were good this weekend, but I’m pretty optimistic about it. Coming to Cardiff, we want to make that our fortress.

“Hopefully, we can get rid of penalties and put our best foot forward.

“As a group of boys, we’re really close. We all believe in each other, and it’s just a matter of time before those results start coming.

“Hopefully, we can create a bit of momentum, and hopefully it can start next week in Cardiff.