ONCE AGAIN the players trailed in after the match as if Declan Kidney had just burned some scented joss sticks on the Astro Turf beside the changing rooms and chanted a Zoroastrian mantra.

Chilled, centred and mellow, hyperbole was far from their minds and hearts. Loose lips cost ships, they used to say during the second World War. The players tread cautiously. Loose lips, they believe, may also lose championships.

A win against France, a victory in Rome, the old enemy put away and Ireland now on top of the table. Kidney’s preaching is cleansing minds and the players are firmly, well, where they are. No further forward than three wins. No further back than six points. Look down too earnestly from the top and the likelihood is an attack of vertigo. No such chance Jamie Heaslip will tumble.

A player who was perfectly grounded before the regime change may well have been beaded in sweat after a grinding game at number eight but the space in vast Croke Park seemed miserly to that in Stadio Flaminio and the hits equally as hard.

“It was a really tough, shattering game,” he says with a twist of his head. “It (ball) seemed to go through a lot of phases before it stopped and that happened throughout the game. And it didn’t loosen up. It was just hitting rucks, hitting rucks, carrying a couple of balls, hitting rucks again and then a bit of ping pong with the ball as well.

“It was all go, go, go. I’d love to see how long the ball was in play for this game. It seemed like an eternity. But what do you expect at this level?

“They didn’t give us a lot of space so we had to grind it out and that’s what we did. It’s what we have to do. We didn’t get any space like in Italy last week. It was really a test of defences and fair play to defensive coaches and the players, the game was that type right up until the end. It was never going to be a big-scoring game. The toughness and closeness of the two teams is shown in the score.”

Brian O’Driscoll’s try just after 57 minutes was a product of that grind. The team leaders called a succession of lineouts and rucks in a demonstration of ability matching tactical nous and patience. It has been a long time since an Ireland player treated the ball like a hot potato. To collectively believe the team could get more than three points from their position and the gathered momentum was the new spirit.

That first half moiling in England’s 22 and the intensity of Ireland’s ambition finally paid off through the captain. The win was flawed, but no less satisfying for it.

“Yeah (satisfying), especially when we opted to go for the scrum,” says Heaslip before admiring, in his own idiosyncratic way, the contribution of O’Driscoll. “We just kept pick and go, pick and go and kept them in close. It was a rewarding way to score even though a back got it . . . ah sure he (O’Driscoll) was trying to get the whole lot. I was surprised he didn’t have a go at a penalty as well.”

O’Gara’s aberration. His two kicks from six efforts. The nine points that slipped away from the first three efforts. He normally kicks them. He missed. So . . .? Heaslip, for the only time, almost breaks from his scented state of tranquillity. Did he almost flinch when O’Gara’s name was taken? His 6ft 4in, 17-stone frame straightens in a ‘listen carefully, you gnats’ sort of way and his eyes fix more steadily.

“The amount of times that Rog has slotted over so many kicks . . . you are not going to hold that against the chap. He tried to put his hand up in the changing room and no one was having it. I don’t believe in ever putting any sort of pressure on him.

“He has enough pressure. He has enough pressure as the main kicker so I don’t believe any sort of extra pressure is positive at all. Everyone’s chasing records. I don’t exactly think he’s thinking of Jonny Wilkinson’s record when he steps up to take a kick.”

That’s the word on O’Gara. He did put his hand up. He did recognise that for some fateful reason his golden boot had inexplicably lost its shine and no doubt Kidney’s soothing voice in his ear was whispering ‘Rog what will be, will be’.”

Ireland can see their goal in the Millennium Stadium in late March. But don’t spoil the mood and get them all riled up by force -feeding them thoughts of winning Grand Slams.

O’Driscoll understands it is not always about what you have but how you use it. And hey, Kidney knows his tomatoes too. For Heaslip, life is somewhat more simple.

“We’ve had a pretty good record,” he says, exhaling after the O’Gara moment. “That’s three tries (conceded) in three games. Still, we could have gone and had a clean sheet there. We’ll have to look at how that came about. We’ll be disappointed but it kind of just went to the wire. In fairness they didn’t give up. Some teams just lay down at that stage. They kept coming.”

Shhh. Whisper it softly but so do Ireland.