"It was one of those special moments. I wasn't looking down the line to see who was crying," said captain Brian O'Driscoll of the playing of Amhrán na bhFiann.

"It was hard not to get emotionally charged. I think Jerry Flannery was in tears," observed the number eight Denis Leamy.

The mix of history and performance was a heady brew for this Irish side in the aftermath of a devastatingly physical confrontation, which Ireland won on all fronts against an inexperienced England team.

Then after blowing them away so comprehensively, it was as if all of the energy and emotion of the game had been drained away with the melting crowds.

And so now, in a ghostly-quiet stadium, some hour or so after the game, had ended, there was finally a little time for the Irish players to reflect.

"It's hard to see how it can get a whole lot better but it's not always going to be that glamorous," said one of the try scorers, Shane Horgan.

"We are not always going to be playing in Croke Park. We have to perform consistently week in week out, and while we are close to it, I don't think we are there yet.

"Losing twice in Croke Park would have been a disaster from a playing point of view and from the public point of view," added the right wing. "We owed the occasion a performance."

But was Brian Ashton's blunt use of the word "stuffed" a fair summing-up?

"I'm glad he used it," said Horgan. "But when you dominate that much territory and possession like that, it's a good indicator how much better you are. He used that terminology but we're just happy with the performance."

More reserved, Simon Easterby matched his unflinching display at blindside flanker with a similarly head-on observation about Ireland's contributions over the last two weeks. Last week Easterby said he owed the team something. On Saturday he repaid the debt.

"We came under a bit of stick after the French match about being chokers," said the Llanelli captain. "We were disappointed with that result, no doubt, but came back strong today and I think we fully deserved the result.

"We didn't give England a chance to get into the game, while we gave the French a headstart. It was always going to be difficult to come back from that. Today we dominated from minute one and that's what saw us through."

That Rock of Cashel Denis Leamy - who was again at his havoc-making best - saw little wrong with the way the Irish team performed the mission. But again he was careful not to gloat.

"It's full of positives," he said. "Our scrum was very good. Our lineout was very good. Our general forward play and work at the breakdown was excellent as well. I don't really want to talk us up, but after a victory like that it's hard not to.

"I think it was a big improvement from the French," he added. "We were very disappointed with our own individual displays against them. Collectively that showed as well. It was time to roll up our sleeves and that's what we did. We got on top of the English pack and we were very happy with it.

"It was the kind of display we were looking to put in for a long, long time and I think it was coming for the last while. It just happened to be England on an historic day when we were really, really up for it."

For Ulster's Isaac Boss, who had played for New Zealand at under-19, this must have taken some explaining. The Kiwi, who sneaked a cheeky intercept try in the dying minutes, again revealed himself as a different style of scrumhalf from Peter Stringer.

"We could hear the crowd even before we got out onto the pitch," said Boss. "It was one of those games that when we got on top of them things went our way. We just didn't let them get back at us and that was the important thing. Got a few easy points just to top it off.

"The scoreboard is the main thing," added Boss.

"But you know, whether it's one point or 30 points, it's a good feeling."