Ireland undaunted as focus shifts to Murrayfield

First up is Craig Gilroy. The young winger put out front of house to explain a slog, in miserable conditions between opposing packs.

An uninterrupted line of English players had already shuffled through the mix zone, speaking freely (as they always have done, even after the crushing defeat at Croke Park in 2007), before there was any sight of an Irish player.

Eventually, Mike Ross and Rob Kearney followed.

“In fairness, they deserved the win,” admitted Kearney. “It is not going to go down as a game we threw away.”

The Ireland fullback, however, disagreed with the suggestion that England’s tactics, the Saracens way, were implemented better than Ireland’s game plan.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “When they were six nil up the pressure was off them. They could can afford to play the game up in our half. Were their tactics better? . . . They just enforced their’s a bit better than us. We probably didn’t put them under enough pressure in terms of our kicking . . . but when you are six points up you can afford to play ping pong a little bit more.”

Those early penalties, to make it 6-0, came as a consequence of Ireland captain Jamie Heaslip first not rolling away and then getting caught on the wrong side of the England maul.

Kearney became a central figure in England’s last two killer scores because, like Heaslip, he always puts himself in the line of fire.

The English pack was marching forward. Nightmare territory for a fullback, seeing 14 teammates in retreat towards him, and a dream scenario for the young English half-backs, Ben Youngs and Owen Farrell.

Momentary gamble

Farrell glanced up and rolled a delicate grubber towards the Irish try-line.

Kearney, in full gate-keeper mode and trusting his experience, allowed for a momentary gamble, pleading with the ball to trickle into touch before the sprinting Mike Brown arrived.

But it stopped dead, forcing Kearney to flop on the ball as a wave of white jerseys descended. Then, cleverly and legally, he touched the whitewash, giving England a five metre lineout but securing respite.

The game had become one of survival. The resultant English maul forced a penalty anyway, which Farrell nailed to make it 9-6.

It was relentless now. Seconds later Kearney gathered another long punt, making the executive decision to counter-attack. Somebody had to force the issue, so Kearney accepted responsibility, only to be scythed down by the ferocious Courtney Lawes. Brown got over his prone body, Jerome Garces’ whistle shrilled, and Farrell’s subsequent belter made it 12-6.

And that, bar the shouting, was game over.

But is losing to this progressive, young England side a setback? “It’s not a significant setback at all,” said Kearney. “Okay, it would have been a huge high for us to have won . . . After 55 minutes, when it was six-all, I think we looked in a really good place and looked as if we were the team building the momentum.

“Did that throw us a bit? Did we try and play a little bit too much rugby then because we were against 14 men? Maybe. It is difficult to call that.”

James Haskell’s sin-binning was the turning point. What it emphasised more than any other moment was the enormous power of this England team. A seven-man pack won the game in those crucial moments.

There was always a high probability with this fixture, win or lose, that Ireland would be without two or three players for the trip to Murrayfield in two weeks’ time.

‘Hugely in the hunt’

Jonathan Sexton is unlikely to recover, Simon Zebo is gone for 10 weeks while there remains a concern about Cian Healy being cited after an incident at a ruck.

Still, Kearney refused to accept the idea of ruin.

“You know, I think this competition is wide open . . . England still have France and Wales. We have to realise we are still hugely in the hunt.”