It was perishingly cold in Cardiff, but there was enough heat in the match to warm the blood of everyone in the stadium. Even with the roof open. It was, everyone agreed, a magnificent game, one that belied Eddie Jones’ attempts to downplay the occasion. Jones was only trying to draw the sting from it, to make sure the hype did not weigh too heavily on his players. But much as he insisted otherwise, there are few events in European rugby quite like England v Wales in Cardiff, when the whole city seems to be overtaken by feverish anticipation, so that every train and bus into the city teems with fans on their way to the game, and the streets around the ground are so full it feels as though every third person in Wales has come out to watch.
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