A difficult weekend for Shaun Edwards, for personal reasons, produced more pleasure than he might have expected as night fell on Twickenham. Edwards, the London Wasps coach whose alliance with Wales has caused a degree of heartache in English coaching circles, began his international career with a victory, but it also brought solace for his family.

Saturday would have been the 25th birthday of his younger brother, Billie Joe, who died in a car accident four years ago, and Edwards's feelings were with Phyllis, his mother, in Wigan. “It was difficult to control all the emotions and I'd like to thank the lads for putting a smile on my mother's face,” he said.

“I telephoned her after the match and she said that, when Wales were losing, she went to the cemetery and prayed.” But even Edwards, throughout a lengthy career in rugby league and union, has not seen quite such a transformation in fortunes at international level: “Once, when Wigan were at home, we were getting battered but managed to turn it around,” he said, “so this was special.”

Edwards and Warren Gatland, the Wales head coach, were at the helm of the Wasps side who battled against the odds to beat Toulouse away in the Heineken Cup in 2004 and Edwards was still there when his club repeated the dose, against Leicester, the favourites, last year. “We were on the rack and, if England had scored just before half-time, it would have been very difficult,” Edwards said. “Waiting for the video referee's decision [on whether Paul Sackey had touched down] was a bad moment.”

Maybe Rianna Lane's painting, hung in the Wales changing-room, made more impact than she knew. The 16-year-old schoolgirl, born in Cardiff but now based in Gloucester, sent a giant mural to the squad bearing the words of William Jennings Bryan, the US politician and lawyer. “Destiny is no matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.”