Out of the shadows stepped Ben Youngs to make history. The February evening sun had dipped behind the Twickenham grandstand, the clock had just ticked past 60 minutes and Wales had stirred. It had been a start-stop, uneven contest to never quite enliven a returning Six Nations home crowd and the visitors had moved to within five points of England when Eddie Jones called for his record-breaker.
Enter Youngs in the twilight, replacing a fading Harry Randall, and surpassing Jason Leonard with cap 115. In truth, he was quiet: Youngs made a single tackle after making his entry. But it was a tackle crucial: dashing across to stop Alex Cuthbert in pyroclastic flow and allow Jack Nowell to jackal. Marcus Smith’s penalty nudged England out of striking distance to seal victory by the skin of gritted teeth.
