It hardly gets much better than this. England suffered the most haunting of last-day Grand Slam failures to complete a Celtic trilogy that someone could probably write a book about. Ultimately a team and a nation said "no way". This was a very Irish rugby day, a very Irish coup.
As was the case to a degree last week, but even more so on Saturday, this heart-warming victory was as much a tribute to the team's mental and physical strength as their collective ability. There have been few better Irish wins, and few Irish teams have ever dug deeper over 80-plus minutes. Truly they made you proud to be Irish.
Going into the match the question as to whether the Irish players really believed they could win, and retain that belief until the end, would be a key factor. That they did so is indisputable.
As he proved in his days coaching Connacht Warren Gatland is a masterful motivator, and the management and the captain clearly pushed all the right buttons in team meetings all during the week and especially on Saturday morning.
For Ireland to win they were also going to have to defend brilliantly, something they did better than they have ever done before. Eddie O'Sullivan had spoken beforehand of the need for the Irish defence to retain its shape into sixth and seventh phases and beyond, to keep the numbers out, to keep communicating. This they did as well, but then they went further still.
For in the last excruciating nine minutes of play, after Austin Healey's try had brought England to within a converted try of a Grand Slam, Ireland were close to being out on their feet. If England's lack of match hardness had shown them to be a little rusty in the opening quarter or so, then Ireland's second, punishing international in eight days assuredly began to tell in that endgame. They couldn't close out the match as they had done against France, losing their shape with the ball (Stringer kicking it to Balshaw) and without it. They were also carrying a greater defensive load, for Ireland will face few teams that will ask as many questions of them as one where Jonny Wilkinson and Mike Catt are pulling the strings, and with the ridiculously elusive Jason Robinson and Austin Healey (thankfully kept in reserve until near the end) dancing at you. Somehow though they kept hounding and harrying England until the death, and they surely would have given their lives at that point.
True, Ireland missed 19 tackles (England missed only seven) but England had a good deal more ball, besides which they kept scrambling back and making the next tackle whenever an initial incision into the green line was made. And ultimately Ireland made 111 tackles to England's 69.
Clive Woodward, as is his wont, contradicted himself by declaring that while he wanted his England team to play ambitiously, perhaps here they had been too ambitious. A Woodward team being over-ambitious? Nonetheless, there was an element of truth to it and it sounded uncannily like Warren Gatland's lament after Murrayfield. Hindsight being 20-20 vision, he'll be criticised for his selection of a faulty Iain Balshaw, who was undoubtedly a weak link at the back (compare and contrast once more with Girvan Dempsey).
From the outside they spun the ball across the line, bringing width into their game but also setting themselves up as prey for a ravenous, scavenging Irish defence. When Phil Greening broke through and chipped ahead for Dan Luger, it looked ominously impressive, but such incisions were kept to a minimum while England didn't get their heavy target runners rumbling closer in.
Well though Simon Shaw played, the absence of Martin Johnson, and Lawrence Dallaglio especially, not alone deprived them of some leadership but, more importantly, bearing in mind how Dallaglio bossed the match two years ago, left them lacking in the hard yards.
"Too many turnovers," Woodward repeated, mantra-like afterwards, as much to himself as those he was addressing in what was a magnanimous reaction generally, for such was England's rustiness and the unrelenting Irish tackling that England committed 18 turnovers to Ireland's six.
Where Ireland moved into unexpected bonus territory was the way they successfully targeted the English lineout, Phil Greening's and even Dorian West's throwing-in both buckling under the pressure. The most telling spin-off was Keith Wood's 17th-minute try.
Its origins came with an English throw in the Irish half, Malcolm O'Kelly backpedalling with John Hayes and Peter Clohessy lifting him as an over-extended Danny Grewcock failed to control his tap-down for Mick Galwey to gether at the tail line. David Humphreys played another expert territorial game and one of his arrowed punts forced Iain Balshaw to slice to touch.
Wood first peeled off O'Kelly's catch for Stringer to launch Kevin Maggs at Wilkinson, then peeled off Galwey's catch and Anthony Foley's deft lay-off to charge around the tail and take Neil Back's tackle to score.
Jonathan Kaplan had penalised the same move in Murrayfield for supposed obstruction at the tail of the line by Eric Miller but later admitted to the Irish management that he had made a mistake, although Miller made sure Richard Hill wasn't getting in Wood's path here.
The other critical moment of the match was probably Stringer's desperate ankle tap-tackle on Luger as the English winger hared towards the line for what he must have thought was a certain try. Wood had taken himself out of the equation by opting for an attempted intercept. In mitigation, Wood must have seen that Mike Catt's cut-out pass to Luger inside half-way had been miscued slightly, besides which (as with Wood's ill-conceived and horrendously executed drop goal attempt, please Keith, no more) with Woody you pays your money and you takes your chances. These mistakes are inevitable with a player who so often goes for the big play, and so often pulls it off. Added to which, his work-rate was immense and he led the tackle count with 11.
The net result of the failed intercept though was that Luger sped through the gap and sidestepped Girvan Dempsey with disturbing ease - admittedly the rock-solid Terenure man's only error of the last two Saturdays, and unquestionably Ireland's most consistent performer over the course of these three rearranged internationals. Stringer saved them both, and Ireland. With Wilkinson's tap-over conversion to put them ahead at 16-14, England wouldn't necessarily have gone on to win, but it most certainly would have put a different complexion on the final quarter.
Possibly then the line between victory and defeat was that between Stringer's fingertips and Luger's heel. Be that as it may, it would have been a steal. Yerragh, the better team on the day won.
Scoring sequence: 10 mins Wilkinson pen 0-3; 12 mins Humphreys pen 3-3; 18 mins Wood try 8-3; 30 mins Humphreys pen 11-3; 40 mins Wilkinson pen 11-6; (half-time 11-6); 48 mins Humphreys pen 14-6; 54 mins Wilkinson pen 14-9; 60 mins O'Gara pen 17-9; 74 m ins O'Gara pen 20-9; 76 mins Healey try 20-14.
IRELAND: G Dempsey (Terenure), S Horgan (Lansdowne), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock), K Maggs (Bath), D Hickie (St Mary's), D Humphreys (Dungannon), P Stringer (Shannon), P Clohessy (Young Munster), K Wood (Harlequins, capt), J Hayes (Shannon), M Galwey (Shannon), M O'Kelly (St Mary's), E Miller (Terenure), A Foley (Shannon), D Wallace (Garryowen).
Replacements: R O'Gara (Cork Constitution and Munster) for Humphreys (60 mins), Emmet Byrne (St Mary's) for Clohessy, T Brennan (Barnhall) for Galwey (both 67 mins), K Dawson (London Irish) for Foley (77 mins), M Mullins (Young Munster) O'Driscoll (78 mins).
ENGLAND: I Balshaw (Bath), D Luger (Harlequins), W Greenwood (Harlequins), M Catt (Bath), J Robinson (Sale); J Wilkinson (Newcastle), M Dawson (Northampton, capt); J Leonard (Harlequins), P Greening (Wasps) J White (Bristol) S Shaw (Wasps) D Grewcock (Bath) M Corry (Leicester) N Back (Leicester) R Hill (Saracens).
Replacements: K Bracken (Saracens) for Dawson (37 mins), D West (Leicester) for Greening (half-time), A Healey (Leicester) for Luger (61 mins), G Rowntree (Leicester) for White, L Moody (Leicester) for Corry (both 76 mins).
