REFEREE Pascal Gauzere has admitted to making mistakes in England's 40-24 Guinness Six Nations defeat by Wales on Saturday.

Gauzere spoke to World Rugby's head of match officials Joel Jutge about "two unfortunate events" as Eddie Jones' team saw their title defence come to an end at the Principality Stadium.

The French official awarded Wales two controversial tries in the first half that enabled the hosts to power into a commanding 17-6 lead.

For Josh Adams' opener, Gauzere told England captain Owen Farrell to speak to his team over their discipline and then quickly restarted play, allowing Dan Biggar to hoist the scoring crossfield kick.

And the second try on the half-hour mark was also highly dubious as Louis Rees-Zammit appeared to knock on during the build-up.

"I believe one has to be transparent and not let things drag on and say what one thinks," Jutge told Midi Olympique.

"There were two unfortunate events during the match which were tough cases to handle. Pascal Gauzere recognised as such when he spoke to me on the phone.

"With regard to the second try, I think there is a tendency to refer to the TMO too often when one can make the call oneself on the pitch and stick with it, which if Pascal had whistled for a knock-on there would have meant no appeal by the TMO to review it.

"Pascal was the first to admit to this when he re-watched the match on Sunday. When one commits an error one should be transparent about it. Despite this he is still an excellent international referee."

England have chosen not to submit a formal complaint to World Rugby over the two tries and were ultimately well beaten despite the blunders, the first of which was described by their former captain Martin Johnson as "absolutely appalling".

It was England's second defeat of a miserable Six Nations campaign that began with Scotland claiming a first win at Twickenham for 38 years, despite tries by Anthony Watson and Ben Youngs, four Farrell penalties and a conversion.

But Wales proved unstoppable and backed up victories over Ireland and Scotland by dismissing their fiercest rivals behind closed doors in Cardiff, with Biggar kicking a penalty and two conversions, while Sheedy booted 13 points.

The visitors were back in it before a Farrell penalty made it 17-14 at half-time.

Biggar, who appeared to suffer a knock just before the break, was replaced by Sheedy just five minutes into the second period, and Wales extended their lead shortly afterwards.

England could have no complaints this time as Hardy took a quick tap-penalty and left defenders floundering before touching down unopposed, and Sheedy added the extras.

England hit back through an impressive Youngs try that Farrell converted to bring up 1,000 points in the white shirt, only for Sheedy to edge Wales back in front through a 66th-minute strike.

He kicked two further penalties to clinch victory and then added the conversion to Hill's try as Wales finished the match in style.