The giant wing switched to centre for the decisive final minutes at Twickenham after Scott Williams was stretchered off injured and Liam Williams took a knock to the head. Warren Gatland sent scrum-half Lloyd Williams on to the wing, and the Cardiff Blues man delivered a pin-point kick to send Gareth Davies over for the decisive try.
And North reckons Wales’s band of brothers gave everything for each other, he said: “It is never nice seeing your mates go down, but 1-31 we have always been there together. You see one man go down and you think he has come this far, it is not fair that he cannot go an extra bit so we may as well dig in for him. He has been there as long as you have and done just as much work, one in all in.
“Our mindset has always been to take every game as it comes. We showed in the last World Cup we can do a lot of damage when we put our minds to it. We have injuries, but we have to make sure we are right for Fiji and after them Australia. Then we will reassess, gather our thoughts and focus again.”
Wales now top Pool A with nine points from two games ahead of their Cardiff clash with Fiji on Thursday. The Millennium Stadium encounter, coupled with England’s do-or-die match against Australia on Saturday could define who advances to the knockout stages.
The players had no time to celebrate, as they hit the road back to their Vale resort base for a 3am recovery session. And North insists they only have eyes for the Flying Fijians after their Rugby HQ upset.
He said: “The M4 is never a nice place but when you win like that coming home is something special. You have to enjoy your wins regardless of the short turnaround: how many times in your career will you be able to say you beat the host nation in their back garden? It’s brilliant for us but as soon as we got on the bus, we enjoyed the trip back but all the boys started to focus on the task in hand, the short turnaround and making sure everyone is fit and well for Fiji on Thursday.”
