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So that’s what it was like. Wales win a Six Nations match in Cardiff for the first time in more than four years. A crowd of 70,000 fairly ripped the stadium off the roof. And they did it with virtually every play of the game.
Most plays of those gave some cause or other for a cheer - and, boy, did the locals respond. How familiar an experience, and yet how not, a ghostly echo of times past. Wales’ mission now is to put flesh on the spirit, to do it again as a matter of course, as of old.
And there were the guys in blue, Italy. Darlings of the Six Nations they may be (there are quite a few of those these days), but they could not make anything work. This was a throwback to times past for them as well, forlorn and blown away by a country imbued with the culture of rugby. How retro.
Italy finished the match with three tries in the last half-hour and had another two ruled out by the narrowest of margins, but given they were 31-0 up by then, Wales might well dismiss that as academic. The meat of the game was theirs. What a far cry from recent humiliations this was.
How far, for example, from the experience here against France in round two. It helps, of course, when you are not drowning in a deluge of opposition tries, but also just having a stadium reasonably full on a Saturday afternoon conjured distantly familiar atmospheres. And then came the tries. Three in the first half alone to - get this - none from the opposition.
The tries were not exactly works of art; indeed all three came directly from lineouts. The first was the best. Ellis Mee came off his blindside to send Eddie James on the crash ball, then Tomos Williams fed Aaron Wainwright, who burst through two Italy forwards to crash over between the posts after only 10 minutes.
As ball-handling forwards go, Rhys Carré has won all the plaudits with that try, but this was reward for Wainwright, who, even in the darkest times of late, has remained a beacon for Wales when fit. He scored again 10 minutes later. Wales to the corner again, taken by Ben Carter at the front, and in Wales piled. Wainwright picked from the base and forced his way over for a second try.
Italy had had their great moment of history the week before. There was always likely to be a hangover. They did actually prey on Welsh minds at the lineout early on, but soon their own started to malfunction. Wales stole an overthrown one at the tail and cleared, Louis Rees-Zammit hounded Monty Ioane moments later on the Italy 22.
An umpteenth penalty was awarded to Wales, corner again, lineout secured again, try again, this time Dewi Lake touching down at the back of the advancing maul. Dan Edwards was successful with all three conversions - 21-0 at the break. And the bonus point followed only a few minutes after the restart, this one a little more sweeping in its majesty.
Wales won an early lineout and worked through enough phases for us to forget about that. By the 10th, following big carries from Wainwright, Lake and Carré, the usual suspects, Wales sent it wide. Edwards looped round Joe Hawkins and glided smoothly through a gaping hole in the Italian defence.
Still not satisfied, Wales came again. Alex Mann chipped too far ahead for Rees-Zammit, but the goal-line drop-out found Edwards loitering around the 10-metre line, whence he landed a towering drop goal. That was the game already, as if the delirious crowd needed any advising of the fact.
Italy dominated the final half-hour. Where they had kicked relentlessly in the first half, they started to chance their arm; where they had been whistled off the park, they now enjoyed the referee’s whistle at their back.
Wales did not win a second-half penalty until the last five minutes. Italy’s first came, of course, from a lineout, Tommaso di Bortolomeo, the replacement hooker, driven over decisively for the first. Archie Griffin was shown a yellow to boot.
And so the test for new Wales became that bit more searching. They handled it with hunger and hardness, surviving Griffin’s absence with no points conceded. Tommaso Allan went over with 10 to go, having been foiled by an heroic Tomos Williams cover tackle, only to pick himself up and accept the try-scoring pass at the end of the next phase.
Monty Ioane and Leonardo Marin were awarded tries and denied them by televisual inquest by the narrowest of margins, but Paolo Garbisi went over at the death for Italy’s third. No matter, the mood here was set long before that. Cardiff is rocking once again.
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