Rugby World Cup: Wales fans paint town red

Wales fans react as they watch the England v Wales rugby union game on a giant television screen at a fanzone in Cardiff. Photo / Getty Images.

The Three Rivers pub in central Cardiff was prepared.

Classified as what it described on A4 pieces of paper pasted behind the bar as a "special event", plastic, rather than glass, was the vessel of the night. And, boy, did the England v Wales match, touted as the most important test ever between these two proud rugby nations, deliver on that promise at Twickenham.

Really, Wales had no right to win this match, but the overwhelmingly Welsh supporting crowd in this down-to-earth pub couldn't care less.

The crowd - four deep at the bar - knew it was game time when the disc jockey strode to his work station 20 minutes before kick-off and played a controversial and little-known (outside Wales) track by the Stereophonics called As Long As We Beat The English.

It was followed by Tom Jones' Delilah. Get the picture?

The pair wearing England jerseys did. They were congratulating each other at halftime when their team took a deserved lead to the break, Wales suffering for their inability to compete in the set piece, along with their failure to breach the English defence.

Were they too deep on attack? Perhaps. There was no doubting that Englishman Owen Farrell was making a good fist of his opportunity at No10 after replacing George Ford, and that Sam Burgess' defence, forged on the hard fields of Australasia in the NRL, was sending the Red Dragons back whence they came.

And yet. Dan Biggar, all idiosyncratic twitches when addressing the ball, didn't miss a kick at goal (neither did Farrell). Wales stayed with them. And then, wonder of wonders, the Welsh tactic of standing deep on attack paid the ultimate dividend when halfback Gareth Davies followed up a kick to score a converted try and that man Biggar put Wales in the lead with a penalty six minutes from the end.

There was an inevitability about what happened next. England failed to cope. The DJ got ready. The Stereophonics rang out on the final whistle. And so did Tom Jones. Bread of Heaven followed and it's fair to say they will get their fill tonight. Welsh injuries? Who cares? They beat the English and they are right back in this World Cup.