The cheers in the makeshift village outside Twickenham’s West Stand reverberated off the food stalls and beer tents to cause a louder racket than the one that 80,000 had made inside the stadium earlier.

England’s clash with Scotland was always going to feel like the warm up act for the main event of the day, as was evidenced by the speed with which England HQ emptied at the final whistle as supporters began their mad dash to get a decent view of a screen, any screen to watch events unfold in Cardiff.

In the England press conference, reporters quizzed Martin Johnson with one eye on the TV set in the corner of the room.

It didn’t take too many glances before you caught sight of Ronan O’Gara being charged at by a Welshman intent on blasting him into the middle of next week.

The Welsh game plan was predictable as it was effective in that first 40 minutes.

If it was big and wearing a red shirt, it was thrown at O’Gara with venom. Tom Shanklin, Ryan Jones, Alun-Wyn Jones all barged at the Munster pivot who, each time, did enough before his bodyguard, David Wallace could come to his aid.

Try as they might – and they would not have been the first team to succeed – Wales couldn’t get rid of O’Gara, and there was no one more deserving of the chance to win the game.

Over 130 miles away, in amongst the pie vans, the champagne marquees, the drunken karaoke singers and the burger flippers, the cheers as the ball sailed through the posts were for a player who could finally say he had stood up and delivered the goods in a green shirt.

The hero of this Six Nations wasn’t wearing white, but he was saluted by Twickenham man all the same.