England flanker Tom Curry was left disappointed after his side surrendered a first-half lead in their Guinness Six Nations defeat to Wales.
The Sale Sharks back-rower touched down for his first-ever England try in the first half as the visitors took in a 10-3 lead at the break.
But Eddie Jones’ men succumbed to a second-half surge from the hosts as it finished 21-13 in Cardiff – Cory Hill and Josh Adams both dotting down.
Curry, 20, grabbed an opportunistic score as he picked up from the back of a ruck to storm over from ten metres out in the 27th minute for England’s only try.
The Sale Sharks openside was the visitors’ star man at Principality Stadium as he secured two turnovers and 25 tackles – the most of any player on the pitch.
“We gave everything and it’s disappointing to come away with a loss like that, especially after putting ourselves in a good position in the first half,” said Curry.
“There are plenty of areas we need to work on, but no one could fault our effort and it’s a shame a few things didn’t come out on the day.
“We will have rest now and come into the next camp focused and be ready to fire into next week.”
England skipper Owen Farrell shared his teammate’s frustration with their second-half display.
“We didn’t really get a foothold in the last 30 minutes of the game,” the Saracens fly-half said.
“We did well in the first half and we had a good go at the start of the second, but then we couldn’t get back that momentum.
“We made a few errors and they did what they did well. We couldn’t get out of our half and they managed to build a lot of pressure.
“It will feel a lot worse than it should now but we will look back on it and learn from what we need to.”