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Tries from Henry Slade and Mako Vunipola plus 14 points from the boot of captain Owen Farrell, who became the sixth man to kick 200 penalties in Test rugby, did the job for the visitors. 

There was little running rugby on view at Parc y Scarlets, where Wales showed dogged resistance at times, an improved showing for coach Wayne Pivac whose team halted a six-game losing streak with a shaky victory over Georgia in its previous outing. 

But England rode out the shock of conceding an early try against the run of play and was a comfortable enough winner in the end.

Johnny Williams nudged Wales ahead on 10 minutes, with Dan Biggar kicking a loose ball through and Williams showing good football skills himself before grounding for the first points of the game. Leigh Halfpenny added the conversion. 

Slade got England on the board in the 15th minute, an easy run to the line in the left corner after the visitors moved the ball sharply through hands, but Farrell pulled his kick wide. 

Halfpenny then sent a 45-metre penalty a foot wide of the right post, missing out on points Wales could ill afford to let slip away. 

Farrell booted England into the lead for the first time after Wales flanker Shane Lewis-Hughes was punished for not releasing the ball. 

England was kicking at almost every opportunity when in possession, but a combination of erratic work and pressure from Wales was keeping it tight. Farrell added a second penalty to edge England into an 11-7 interval lead. 

The Wales defence was impressing but it was bereft of an attacking threat and at times it looked like a damage-limitation exercise, with Vunipola plunging over from close range near to the posts for the second England try in the 51st minute.

Farrell could hardly miss and duly stretched England's lead to 18-7, before a spell of Wales pressure saw the hosts earn a pair of penalties that Biggar seized on to claim six easy points. 

A third Farrell penalty saw England to an eight-point cushion, after Wales knocked on, and he slotted a fourth in the 72nd minute to make sure.