There are two things guaranteed to ruin summer in these islands, the location of the Jet stream and the lack of form of your national rugby team.

The jet stream is a zone of fast moving winds, typically flowing around the globe at mid-latitudes around six miles above the earth’s surface.

In a normal summer, the jet stream would typically pass to the northwest of Scotland, bringing rain to the northwest of Britain and drier weather to the south.

Lately the jet stream has got stuck more or less across southern England which brings the low pressure systems straight across England and Wales. This stuck weather pattern has resulted in all that rain.

Yesterday in Cardiff storm Antoni arrived and took away all the relevant pleasures associated with summer rugby.

But for English and Welsh fans the deep depression that has hovered overhead for most of 2023 has been of the non-meteorological variety.

The rollercoaster that we Welsh are familiar with has failed it’s safety certificate and is totally broken down lying rusty behind the ghost train and the helter-skelter.

Saturday was the chance of a fresh start. After training camps in Switzerland and the blistering heat of Turkey the men in red were back in the Welsh rain playing under the closed gazebo of the Principality Stadium.

Captain Morgan made sure Wales didn’t get a rum deal. He led from the front and was justifiably man of the match, definitely a Jac of all trades and he must surely now be prime candidate for skipper at the Rugby World Cup.

England started strongly dominating possession and territory, but Wales defence looked back to its very best and kept England try less. England’s 9-6 half time lead consisted of three penalties from Marcus Smith against two from centurion Leigh Halfpenny.

The second half belonged to Wales they showed more accuracy and looked fitter than the visitors scoring tries through Gareth Davies and George North to give them a fairly comfortable 20-9 victory.

One swallow doesn’t make a summer, wherever the jet stream is situated, but this performance had Galtland and Foreshaw’s palm print all over it a dynamic based on defence and fitness, also there were some lovely deft touches from Sam Costello and Louis Rees-Zammit.

The conflicting emotions of the tribute to Clive Rowlands and the celebration of Leigh Halfpenny’s 100th cap could not have been more stark. “Top Cat” lived every one of his nine lives to the full, and “Pence” has been the model professional a quiet charming and unassuming young man who is a credit to the game. Both deserved the heartfelt tributes from the 65,802 crowd.

For Welsh fans it was a welcome uplifting experience, and after all the travails of last season maybe, just maybe, we have managed to put a few drops of WD40 on that Welsh rollercoaster.