A whole haberdasher’s worth of experience, led by the peerless Gibson-Park, fairly tormented their younger and more hopeful hosts

So it looks as if it might have been a bubble. England’s 12-match winning run came to a shuddering halt last week, but it was possible to believe that flop might prove a one-off – a chastened Scotland at home, after all, has been the downfall of many an England team.

Well, there are scattered strips of latex all over Twickenham now, England’s balloon more than spectacularly popped by an Ireland side who are hardly afraid of inspirational rugby against this lot themselves.

• Wales 12-54 France

• Wales slump to 13th consecutive Six Nations defeat

We are running out of ways to describe this. Another match in what used to be rugby’s most passionate cauldron, another dismantling, another humiliation.

France are good, really good, but we might as well have been in Paris, so loud was the travelling support, so gaping the rows of empty seats. The official attendance was just shy of 60,000. Maybe, but it looked and felt a good deal less than that.

England did not play all that well in thrashing Wales and it is hard to see how the visitors pull themselves out of the rut

England really didn’t play that well. Certainly, if the number of points left out there is any guide. There were times in the first half, that part of the game when both teams are meant to be still in it, when it seemed as if scoring a try just required the hosts to string enough passes together.

Fair enough, they did score four in the first half alone, but two of them, the second and third, came when Wales were down to 13. So, yeah, string enough passes together …

• Pool 1: Toulouse 77-7 Sale

• Both clubs are through to Champions Cup last 16

They are box office, of course. The team anyone would pay good money to watch. A collection of youngsters from Manchester were given the best seats in the house, as their magisterial hosts ran rings round them. This is Sale’s record defeat. This is Toulouse avenging their defeat to Saracens last week. Far older and uglier players than Sale could call on would have suffered similarly.

Both teams thus qualify for the last 16. Toulouse leapfrog their visitors into second place, for now, which means a home tie. They will be cheering on Glasgow, who host Saracens in the last match of the pool stages on Sunday.

• Pool 3: Harlequins 61-10 Stormers

• Quins score nine tries against much-changed opponents

Harlequins back? Or is this latest outrageous twist in the story of their inconsistency a case of same old, same old? First, it needs to be acknowledged that this was a comprehensive dismantling of a side who had not lost a game this season. This was hardly the Stormers’ first team, but an unbeaten squad is an unbeaten squad. God knows, they are beaten now.

The notion that Harlequins are one of the Premiership’s whipping boys was made to look absurd as they strutted the turf of the Stoop with supreme confidence and aplomb. Try after try followed, a hat-trick for Nick David with consecutive tries either side of half-time. But the star performers were legion here. Their eighth try (of nine) on the hour opened up a 54‑0 lead. How far away seemed the past few weeks, in which they have conceded nigh-on 150 points in three Premiership matches.

• Pool 1: Sharks 28-23 Saracens

• Much-changed Sarries beaten in tough conditions

It is a long way to go for just a point, but Saracens all but took the maximum against Sharks in biblical weather in Durban. Now that South Africa has been incorporated into the Champions Cup, these long trips are part and parcel. It meant Saracens changing 10 of their starting lineup. It meant Sharks changing 14 – and a head coach to boot.

JP Pietersen, the former Springbok, stepped up to fill his new role this week when John Plumtree resigned after the Sharks’ heavy defeat in Toulouse on Sunday. One match, one win, his record now reads. For Sharks this was only a second win of the season. They were just about worth it, but still they must despair at finding any rhythm among a squad packed with Springboks.

• Wales 0-73 South Africa

• Springboks score 11 tries but Etzebeth off for eye gouge

Every bit as dispiriting as expected. Worse, was it pointless? Well, it certainly had more points to it than Wales would have liked. But, worse again, was it actively alienating? A record defeat, 11 tries conceded, the first time since 1967 Wales have failed to score a point in Cardiff. The opposition on that day 58 years ago, Ireland, scored 70 fewer than the Springboks here.

“It’s quite a raw, emotional dressing room,” said Dewi Lake, Wales’s captain. “The boys are proud Welshmen, so coming off the field with the scoreboard looking like that is tough to take. But I don’t think it’s going to ruin the confidence of the younger boys. If anything, it drives you even more. You recognise the gap and what you’ve got to do.”