England v Ireland: It was a kind of verbal overthrow, a mishmash of his former incarnation as England's hooker and his sideline of BBC television commentary analyst.

Brian Moore has never been afraid to court controversy but his latest two-word volley should cause him acute embarrassment. He may have to plea bargain his way out of this aberration.

When asked to name the RBS man of the match at Twickenham on Saturday, Moore ventured: "Andy Goode."

It was greeted by a stunned silence that could not have been more pronounced had he uttered a stream of expletives or perhaps even more absurdly confessed that he loved the French.

Goode recovered from a nervous start to grow into the match, demonstrating character in the process. It was a tidy performance but he wasn't even the best English player on the pitch. It didn't seem to be weighing heavily on the Leicester outhalf's mind as he considered England's defeat.

"We played some decent rugby and they (Ireland) have scored three tries that they might not have been given. It's a very dejected changing-room. We got pretty close to winning it, but a bounce of the ball and a couple of decisions denied us. Credit to Ireland, they never gave up and they'll take the win."

Goode then describes what it was like to watch Scottish touch judge Rob Dickson's face as the official watched the replay of Ireland's first try scored by Shane Horgan. Dickson raised his flag but then put it down.

The English outhalf sighed: "It's quite frustrating. The first try and we're shown on the big screen. Afterwards (after the referee) has given it, the touch judge (in question) is smiling under the posts when he's realised he's made a mistake.

"It sort of inspires you to go on and get back into the game. When your luck's down, which ours is at the moment, things like that tend to go against you. You just refocus, block the missed kicks out of your mind and get on with it. I played reasonably well. You would rather win the game and play badly than lose the game and play well.

"Most people would say that we deserved to win the game but we didn't. There's a great team spirit in this squad and that was evident out there. Up until that last ditch effort we were a bounce of the ball away from beating Ireland. You saw that when (Ronan) O'Gara put the chip through, we had it well covered but it bounced into (Brian) O'Driscoll's hands.

"No doubt I'll get a bit of stick from Geordan (Murphy), Shane Jennings, Leo Cullen; there's quite a few Irish boys at Leicester. If Ireland were honest they were quite lucky to win the game. It's one of those days. Professional sport is a tough environment when luck's not with you."

England's beleaguered coach Andy Robinson was impressively gracious in defeat. It's not that the couple of decisions that should have been ruled in England's favour didn't annoy him but he paid tribute to a couple of Irish players despite disappointment at the outcome.

"I can't see how a touch judge can allow a try (Horgan's first) scored as (it) was which allowed Ireland back into the game. I'm staggered, absolutely staggered. There's no doubt. It's not even (a) 50/50 (call).

"Then there's the Ben Cohen quick throw, called back for no apparent reason. (We) needed everything to go our way and you look above and think that he isn't smiling on us.

"Credit to Shane Horgan, he took the try well."

Robinson would also pay tribute by name to O'Gara's touchline conversion to Horgan's second and match winning try before adding, "(we were on) the wrong end of a couple of decision but credit to Ireland, they came here and played well and took their chance in the end."