James Haskell took on all-comers in Cardiff - including the Millennium Stadium uprights © Getty Images

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When England next meet Wales, it will be in the World Cup. Much will have changed by then but they will draw on experiences from this freezing evening in Cardiff when they meet in Twickenham. Instead of Scott Gibbs' famous Wembley try - the moment of choice in Cardiff public houses pre-match - the watering holes near HQ will show Anthony Watson's exquisite pick-up for his try, the Jonathan Joseph jink for his score and James Haskell bulldozing head-first into a post. They will reflect on having won their last four encounters against Wales and Australia.

England kept their counsel in the run up to this opening Six Nations match in Cardiff. There were no verbal grenades thrown or talk of illegal blocking. They did not bite. Instead they were introspective, they focused on what was achievable with the players available and formed the game plan accordingly.

At the centre of it was a cocktail of forward ballast and field play. George Ford was crowned the Man of the Match but it could equally have gone to anyone of the pack. At the centre putting body on the line were Chris Robshaw, Haskell and Dave Attwood. From here platforms can be built, matches won.

Haskell played like a man possessed. When he ran into the post in the second half, it was the post which came off worse. It has been a while coming from him. At Premiership level he has been one of the stand-out back-rowers this term but his runout against Samoa in the autumn left him frustrated. But come Cardiff, his performance combined gainline-breaking ballast and a relentless commitment. His captain also never rested on his laurels and played well despite coming up against an in-form Sam Warburton.

The pubs in Cardiff in the run up to the match played the 30-3 win on loop. In the Prince of Wales, Gibbs' 1999 effort was cheered with as much gusto as the tries have been in the towering stadium over the road. Alex Cuthbert's brace were saluted with equal decibels.

There was a confidence in the place, Wales had the experience, England the injury-ravaged fledglings. The perception was Stuart Lancaster's men would be lambs to the slaughter. But for all that went unsaid in public this week, the preparation they did for the game paid dividends. The confidence was kept in-house and they showed great character to bounce back from a slow start, even slower than it took them to get onto the field as the pre-match jamboree showed no signs of ending.

For all the talk of England discipline, it took longer to get the multitude of lasers off the field than it did for referee Jerome Garces to award the first penalty of the game to the hosts.

Jonathan Joseph's try capped off a stirring performance © PA

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While kicking from hand from both fly-halves throughout the game was erratic, Leigh Halfpenny ignored all manner of pre-match tension to get Wales off to the best possible start. Seven minutes later and they had their first try as Taulupe Faletau exploited slack tackling and an adrift Jonny May to put in a glorious offload to give Rhys Webb an easy walk in.

Wales at that stage should have put England to the sword, after 10 minutes the first meaningful hit put in on a Wales player was by one of their own as Biggar's bonce connected with Gethin Jenkins. But from there there was no 2013 capitulation by England, for once Wales were finding it hard to get themselves over the gainline. The ballast was being met with fire. England edged this area of the match with Wales' first-up tackling poor and Joseph establishing himself as a Test centre.

There was no common pattern in the scrum but it was England who won the key scrum penalty in the final 10 minutes. The first two hit outs saw Dan Cole have Gethin Jenkins on toast but the tide changed and it allowed Wales to get key field position in the opening stages of the second half when for all the world it looked like England may start a charge.

England's 20-phase move for Joseph's try was an exercise in patience and it was he who enjoyed the most territory in the midfield compared to his Welsh opponents. As the game progressed into the final throes, it was not 'Hymns and Arias' booming out, but instead it was 'Swing, Low'. It was an unfamiliar sound in a foreign place. For everything that 2013 was for England, two years on and those ghosts were being buried.

For all of those highs, though, it is back down to earth for next week. England need to climb down from the starlit sky peaking through the open-roof in the Millennium Stadium. Wales, by contrast, now have to pick themselves off the canvas; this will have hurt them. Up next is Italy but the omens are good for Lancaster's men. Of their 13 previous wins in Cardiff, on all but one occasion it was one blow landed in campaigns that ended in title triumphs.

There will be different ballads emanating from the bars in Cardiff tonight. It will be a noise hard to exorcise from the very being of the Welsh players until their next meeting with England in September.