Maro Itoje tumbled out of the breakdown and came up with the ball, and finally it was over. This was not a game for the rugby aesthete, nor truly one for the rugby purist, but eventually a competitive Six Nations game broke down after the first half errata. Eventually, it was England and Itoje who clung on to hold off a double Welsh fight-back and keep faint title hopes alive in a messy affair.
This had been billed as knockout rugby but the early rounds were contested of squabbles and sloppy punches thrown against the ropes. It was a first half played in bits and pieces, rather stumbling across the broken bric-a-brac of scruffy breakdowns and slap-dash set-pieces, with scrums contested in the abstract as both front rows did everything they could except drive legally, often before the ball could be put in.
