Irish skill and passion prove the perfect dish

Twickenham was a great place to be on Saturday. Beating the world champions on their own turf and spoiling their homecoming in front of their sometimes hard-to-take home crowd was very satisfying.

The fact this victory will probably deliver a Triple Crown and possibly a share of the championship was hardly even discussed in the aftermath of the match. The win over England was in itself more than enough to satisfy the hungriest of Irish rugby supporters.

For anyone at the game, it was difficult not to notice some English newspapers contained a half-page advertisement of the menu (right). The official match programme also carried a two-page spread of the same menu. Clearly the rich mixture of seasoned pros was too rich for the English stomachs and in future they should try cooking the hungry colts rather than trying to eat them raw. This particular course will have given Clive Woodward a dose of indigestion that will take quite a long time to get over.

The Irish players deserve great credit. Seldom has an Irish team mixed passion and skill so well, particularly in the second half. Although we were leading at half-time, it didn't look sufficient. I expected England to improve and from the restart it looked like they had, especially when Ben Cohen touched down in the corner without Ireland having touched the ball. Fortunately the try was not allowed.

This seemed to stir our players into life. Our first-half performance had been competent rather than spectacular, apart from the lineout, which was totally dominant. We now added passion to our play and started producing fast ruck ball thereby creating space for our backs.

Girvan Dempsey's try was as good at they come. The full back has taken a lot of criticism from everyone, including myself, but he has more than repaid the faith of coach Eddie O'Sullivan.

Ronan O'Gara's conversion after the try was also a crucial score. By making the gap between the sides nine points, he forced England to play catch-up and run the ball, which suited our outstanding defence. O'Gara kicked from his hands much better than he has done in the previous two games and played more like his old self. In fact I was surprised we continued to pass so much ball in the last 20 minutes when it would have appeared more prudent to kick to the corners. Had we done so our dominance in the lineout and maul areas would surely have kept the England team pinned back in their own territory.

England did almost steal the game against the run of play but a great tackle by Malcolm O'Kelly on Mark Regan saved the day. It was appropriate it was O'Kelly for this was the best performance of his 62 caps.

Those people who weren't on the pitch also deserve great praise. And none more so than Niall O'Donovan for his work with the forwards and particularly in the lineout. This was the most important single contributor to the Irish win.

He has brought the same level of efficiency to Ireland he previously brought to Shannon and Munster. The analysis of the English lineout was perfect. I had also heard many good things about Mike Ford's defensive training but the players had not always stuck to his system. If Saturday's defensive performance was because they stuck to it, then they should not go away from it again.

The video analysis of the English back-line defence paid dividends as well, as they had clearly identified the space in which Girvan Dempsey scored. It wasn't an accident because a similar space had been found on the other wing just before the try but Brian O'Driscoll's poor pass squandered the opportunity.

The coach, who is the man who has to pull it all together, has taken the Irish team up to the next level. We will definitely beat Italy and Scotland because of the efficiency that he has brought to the side since his arrival, particularly when playing against weaker teams.

Some will say England played badly and made a lot of mistakes but the ironic thing is that Ireland too can play better than they did and that makes the victory all the more pleasing.

I thought before Saturday this game would make or break our championship and although one swallow does not make the summer, this one win will certainly make this championship season.

In an interview with Johnny Watterson