BEHIND me at Lansdowne Road on Saturday, a strident Irish voice was occupied for most of the match scoffing at what he perceived as the attacking limitations of the English backs. Skipper Philip de Glanville came in for special attention: "Is there a Leinster club that would have him in their junior side?"

Within the hour, de Glanville was doing his best to avoid triumphalism while explaining to the assembled scribes the manner of England's scoring spree. And from his comment: "The crowd were very generous at the end in their applause for the English team," one could assume that he wasn't within ear shot of my neighbour.

Mind you, de Glanville went on to make the rather ill informed remark that such generosity from Irish spectators was "unheard of". But he added: "It was good to see that and good to feel it. And you could sense that our players were beginning to pick up the pace and starting to relax a bit."

God help us if they succeeded in relaxing any further!

The visiting skipper went on to pinpoint what he considered to be a key moment in the match for England. It was the splendid attack by Denis Hickie, ended by a hand trip by Mark Regan in the 15th minute of the second half, when there was only 11 points between the sides.

"Had they (the Irish) scored then, they would have got their tails up," he said. "Instead, we went down the other end and finished them off."

Then, for the benefit of supporters sated with success, he went on: "People may ask why can't England start like that. The fact is that while you may aspire to playing as well as that in the beginning, your opponent is coming in much harder and much faster at that stage, and there's far less space in which to operate, particularly in an international.

"That's a fact of life. It's over eagerness, I think, to begin with. We had one or two opportunities in the first half when I felt we went a bit flat and there were one or two forward passes and one or two knock ons. We were probably too keen, with too many people running for the one space.

"But I thought Paul Grayson had an excellent game, giving us a lot of control at fly half. He put us into places in the second half where we could play. Gradually we acquired the confidence to let the ball carrier and three or four guys behind him secure the ball and we started looking to what we could achieve in the next phase.

"I was delighted with the last 20 minutes when we put a lot of pressure on the Irish, knocked them down, picked up the pieces and scored the points."

Whatever about de Glanville's handling and running skills, it was difficult to recall such a polished and articulate post match performance from the captain of a Moran Cup side.

Small wonder that his coach and mentor, Jack Rowell, was content to sit admiringly to his right, nodding approval at appropriate moments. Rowell had already had his say and would soon made a further contribution.

"We expected a big challenge with Ireland on the rebound after their win against Wales and the Ashton factor taking them on another pace," said Rowell. "We also anticipated windy conditions and were fortunate to get a lovely spring day.

"Obviously we're delighted that a team could come over here with Ireland on the rise and do so well. Opponents tend to get up for the England game - they want to beat us.

"As to the possibility of putting it together for a full 80 minutes - it never goes like that. Obviously you would aspire to something like that but when I looked as the scoreboard and saw we were leading by a few points, my only thought was if only we can hold on."

The Irish pressed us very hard, with some exciting, running football into the wind and I thought if they score now, all hell will break loose. Fortunately, we managed to keep them at bay."

He added: "There's always two teams out there and in the Five Nations, if the underdog gets up, particularly against England, strange things can happen."

Rowell then availed of the opportunity of knocking any possible complacency out of his captain by referring to the late, tactical changes which saw Austin Healey (driving flair!) and Jeremy Guscott come into action.

"There's not much between two thirds of the team and their counterparts in the A team, let alone those people on the bench," said Rowell. "With such fierce competition for places, we thought Mr Guscott and Mr Healey should at least tread the sacred turf here today. And Jerry, of course, is still a prince of centres."

In response, de Glanville felt he understood the thinking behind his partnership with Will Carling at centre. "We make the wings look quick," he suggested, to hearty laughter. And with the initial pain of defeat eased somewhat, we Irish felt just about capable of joining in.