The journey to nailing down the most famous shirt in Welsh rugby has not always been easy for Biggar.
After starring for Wales Under-20s, he was made to wait for his chance as Stephen Jones and James Hook dominated the fly-half landscape in Warren Gatland’s early years in charge.
The 25-year-old has also had to shift Rhys Priestland from his path, while Gareth Anscombe, another number 10 contender, made his home debut for Cardiff Blues on Friday following his much-publicised decision to opt to chase Test selection in a jersey carrying three feathers rather than a silver fern.
But over the last two years there has been an impressive maturity about Biggar’s play, and it hit its peak here.
His kicking from hand was exemplary, his defensive contribution awesome and he was as calm as anyone when another nerve-shredding climax headed Wales’ way.
It suggests Anscombe and company have a real task on their hands to get a grip on his jersey, and attack coach Howley had nothing but praise for the man-of-the-match.
He said: “Dan Biggar was outstanding today, he has really matured as a number 10. His communication on and off the field, as well as his work ethic has been fantastic. His diligence to his work is excellent and he also defended extremely well, and I am sure Shaun Edwards would be delighted with the number of tackles he put in.
“But the way he navigated us around the park was outstanding and in Dan and Rhys Webb we have two very good half-backs who can grow together and lead us on into the Six Nations.”
Biggar’s Herculean effort in defence, which included one crunching tackle on Springbok loosehead Tendai Mtawarira, was matched by his team-mates.
It marked the first time Wales had not conceded a try against one of the big three since losing 13-21 to Australia in Cardiff in 2001, and was reminiscent of their tigerish efforts during the 2008 Six Nations, where they conceded just two tries.
Defence coach Edwards admitted some choice words from Warren Gatland following the defeat to Australia at the start of the month had played a part in the improvement which started with a uncompromising opening hour against New Zealand.
Edwards said: “After the Australia game Warren gave me some constructive criticism. He said he felt we had been defending okay but we were not using our defence as an attacking weapon.
“We tried to re-iterate that, we managed it for 65 minutes against the All Blacks, we managed it for 80 today. A good head coach is prepared to criticise his assistant and I took it in the right way, as did the lads, and we have tried to use it as an attacking weapon.
“Only conceding six points is very good, but the fact we got points from our defence is us getting back to being an attacking force as a defence.”
