It will have been 722 days since a Six Nations encounter was last held at a full Twickenham when England and Wales run out into the fading evening light on Saturday. Then, as now, other matters rather trivialised a contest as the realities of the pandemic began to bite, but this rekindling of a great rivalry may provide some welcome distraction from distressing developments elsewhere.
Life can throw up strange patterns of recurrence and so it is that another encounter with Wales comes after a week in which coronavirus restrictions have been lifted in England. At the competition’s pivot point this will decide which of the slow starters continues to build momentum and which is out of tournament contention.
