England silenced Cardiff with a strong second-half display to beat Wales 21-16 in their Six Nations opener.

Stuart Lancaster's side trailed 16-8 at the break only to add 13 unanswered points after the interval for a morale-boosting victory over their great rivals.

Kickoff at a raucous Millennium Stadium was delayed by six minutes as the two teams stood firm in their respective tunnels, refusing to enter the arena before the other.

With some encouragement from the officials, England blinked first and they were behind within two minutes as Leigh Halfpenny kicked successfully from 40 yards following Jonny May's concession of a penalty.

The Welsh were soon 10-0 up thanks to a Halfpenny-converted try that saw Taulupe Faletau pluck the ball from out the back of a collapsing scrum and offload for number nine Rhys Webb to touch down.

England crossed over themselves on 14 minutes when Anthony Watson scooped up Mike Brown's clever grubber kick to go over out wide, although George Ford hit the post when attempting the extras.

Ford would add a penalty later in the half to cancel out an effort from distance by Halfpenny, whose shock penalty miss on 34 minutes was compensated for by Dan Biggar's drop goal on the stroke of the break.

The home side's eight-point lead had been cut to one within six minutes of the restart. Jonathan Joseph showed smart footwork and handling to score a try which was converted by man of the match Ford.

Wasps forward James Haskell was another of Lancaster's star performers and he was only denied England's third try when a number of Wales players forced him to run into the post, and he could not ground the ball.

Wales wing Alex Cuthbert was sent to the sin-bin for his part in the incident, and Ford kicked the 62nd-minute penalty from in front of the posts to put the visitors ahead for the first time in the contest at 18-16.

England had the man advantage and all of the significant territory by this point and twice came close to killing Wales off, with Luther Burrell driving through only to force Brown into knocking on with a poor pass.

Dave Atwood did score what he thought was England's third try, only for the officials to disallow the effort for substitute Nick Easter, making his first international appearance since 2011, crossing in the build-up.

That left Wales still within a Halfpenny penalty of victory as the game entered the final minutes, but it was England kicker Ford who would have the final say as he kept his nerve to secure his side a five-point win.