What lies beneath this great victory?

Still top o' the world ma, still top o' the world. And toast of the world too, presumably. "Thank you Ireland," as one French journalist put it. It's hard to imagine how much Ireland's win must have been applauded throughout the rugby world, from Timaru to Timbuktoo.

It's not just the "ex-pats". For example, they wouldn't half have enjoyed it in Australia, would they? That said, unlike Australia, in a sporting context it's doubtful the Irish rugby community would gloat to quite such the same extent, for the magnanimity of Clive Woodward and this English team, not to mention the English journalists and supporters, cannot be understated.

The English coach seemed intent on shaking every Irishman's hand he could find in Twickenham and offer congratulations.

The top brass in the BBC mightn't agree, but that's a different matter, as it denies them their rejigged finale (and rather insulting to everyone else) on March 27th, or "Super Saturday", in Paris, with the collisions between Ireland and Scotland, and Wales and Italy, mere appetisers. Now, although Eddie O'Sullivan would hate to jump the gun, it's conceivable Ireland could be crowned champions while sitting down to their post-match dinner that night.

Aside from being the only side left who can win the Triple Crown, and with Scotland at Lansdowne Road, Ireland must be a longish shade of odds-on to achieve their first since 1985. If O'Sullivan's team win their concluding two games at home to the bottom two sides in the table then only France can finish above them on points.

For that to happen, Les Bleus will need to win away in Scotland and then at home to England. Thus, were England to win their concluding matches at home to Wales and away to France, there's every chance of a three-way tie on eight points involving France, England and Ireland.

In that scenario, the championship would be decided on points difference. As things stand, Ireland's points difference is significantly inferior, +9, to France's +50 and England's +57. But then again, if Ireland dip their bread in the last two games, then a first championship since '95 is not out of the reckoning.

But after Ireland's greatest win in the professional era, a little dreaming is surely allowed. To put it in context, no home nation had won at Twickenham since Ireland's win there in 1994, and England hadn't suffered a defeat there in the Six Nations since France's Christophe Lamaison-inspired win, or of any kind since the All Blacks won there in 1999.

More pertinently, Ireland had turned around successive heavy defeats to England in their last two meetings, and the 46-6 loss in last season's Grand Slam decider was perhaps the most salutory defeat this team has suffered.

"Last year, we had a similar game plan in mind but it didn't work at all," admitted Anthony Foley. "We got no go-forward ball out in the channels. Today we went after them out there, and for it to come off was brilliant."

Much like famous Munster wins in the European Cup in recent years, the victory was marked by a try that you could watch over and over again; a sudden increase in tempo and a willingness to offload in a compelling team drive.

Girvan Dempsey has taken more criticism than anyone, but he'll always have Twickenham and the memory of the try he finished. In a roundabout way, he started it too.

Dempsey would be the first to admit his confidence had drained from the latter stages of the World Cup through Leinster's patchy form in Europe, and when he kickstarted his Six Nations campaign in Paris he looked reluctant to take the ball into contact. But it was his willingness to run back a kick by Paul Grayson, take on Jason Robinson on the outside and offload to the supporting Tyrone Howe which lit the torch paper for Ireland to cut loose in the third quarter.

As Foley pointed out, the key to the "see-saw", wide-wide game having more effect this year than last was the ability of Irish runners to punch holes in wide channels before switching play across field again. From that aforementioned recycle, everyone caught the mood, Simon Easterby, with support from Ronan O'Gara, Paul O'Connell and Foley himself all suddenly making offloads for Gordon D'Arcy to take England backpedalling to their own line.

Though England kept their defensive width to prevent any inroads when play switched acrossfield again, the die had been cast. Cue D'Arcy. While this was very much a triumph for O'Sullivan, Niall O'Donovan, Mike Ford, Declan Kidney and the rest of the Irish management, we should afford a nod of recognition toward Willie Anderson at Leinster for coming up with the notion of D'Arcy as an outside centre when Brian O'Driscoll was injured, and Gary Ella for going with it.

In a game when line-breaks were like gold dust, D'Arcy's three were invaluable, none more so than the one which led to the try. Peter Stringer and, as he has a habit of doing, Howe were in support. Another key element, as Foley pointed out, was Ireland punched through when they went right, Shane Horgan and O'Kelly offloading in the tackle for Foley to set up ruck ball close to the line. This time skip passes by D'Arcy and O'Driscoll enabled Howe to release Dempsey - Josh Lewsey having shot up as O'Sullivan had located in video analysis.

Of course, the famous 1994 win at Twickenham had a memorably conceived try as well, unveiled by Brian Ashton but tailored by the current Irish coach, hence aka "Sullivans". Those wins over England in 1993 and '94 stood out in splendid isolation and, ithe build-up to this game, Keith Wood observed that those wins rather papered over the cracks in Irish rugby, which is in altogether much better health nowadays.

One is reluctant to hit even the slightest discordant note in the aftermath of such a weekend but the cupboard has been made to look a little bare in this season's Celtic League. Granted, the failure of the provinces to beat any opposition from Wales or Scotland in the last three weeks may be attributed to their Celtic rivals having Heineken European Cup places at stake.

Even so, the academy conveyor belt doesn't look as healthy as a few years ago, the under-19s (no doubt playing second fiddle to the schools game again) were thrashed on Friday night. And, of course, the club game is in crisis. At least this weekend will have given everybody a lift, but you sense some cracks are starting to reappear underneath. ...