England manager Martin Johnson said his side faced a problem of "perception" after indiscipline once more cost them dear during their 23-15 defeat by Six Nations champions Wales on Saturday.

The visitors avoided the 'Valentine's Day massacre' many pundits had predicted and this was no Millennium Stadium mauling, with England outscoring the grand slam title-holders by two tries to one.

However, England gave away 18 points in penalties (five kicked by outside-half Stephen Jones and one by long-range specialist Leigh Halfpenny, the right wing who also scored Wales's only try) and were twice down to 14 men after backs Mike Tindall and Andy Goode were sin-binned.

That took England's yellow card count to 11 in eight matches and Johnson, after a fixture where his men repeatedly fell foul of South African referee Jonathan Kaplan, told reporters: "We gave away 18 points in penalties. We have a perception issue now. You have to deal with it. We need to end it.

"Andy's was near the line but Mike Tindall's (for not releasing the tackled Halfpenny) surprised us.

"Refs can make call at every ruck, as refs will tell you. We have to overcome it. It's self-perpetuating a little bit. We have to be whiter-than-white when we play," said the 2003 World Cup winning skipper.

"If you don't give away easy penalties and turnovers, you become a difficult team to beat. Having said that, we could have overcome that.

"This team is better than they think they are. This is a Test we could have won despite the penalty count if we'd backed ourselves and kept our composure."

This was a far more intense England than the one that had laboured to a 36-11 win over Italy in the first round at Twickenham.

Johnson though did not take much solace from what was arguably England's best display in his six matches as manager.

"I am not into moral victories and all that rubbish. We want to win games."

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