It doesn't need the great analysis from one of our esteemed poker players to realise England had been within an agonisingly small margin of a win. England are battling for public acclaim after years of disruption and distraction, and they had kicked and clawed their way to the brink of victory when Tommy Bowe"s second try, Ireland"s third, turned it all shamrock-shaped. That gives us six wins out of the last seven meetings.
I thought we excelled in the line-out and after an England penalty was reversed we scored from the next play (if I am honest it was a harsh decision). Then in a bizarre twist we lost Brian O"Driscoll, accidentally clattered by O"Connell"s knee.
There were seven minutes remaining of a bizarre match, the stats say England made only 30 tackles, whilst we made over 90. We had a line out on the 22 and were 16-13 down. The line-out was caught by Paul O"Connell and a huge gap opened at the tail. Tomas O"Leary darted a few metres before passing to Bowe, who bulleted past Wilkinson"s inside shoulder and fended off a couple of defenders, Ronan O"Gara converted. We held out defending vigorously and England's pleadings to the referee for a penalty amounted to nothing.
For sure, I thought it was all over until Tommy Bowe's try determined otherwise.
It was a day for brutality rather than brilliance and we were more brutal.
