One came away from Lansdowne Road yesterday decidedly relieved that Ireland hadn't run into England first up. Then again, there wasn't much fun to be had in saving them till last either.

Ireland have taken on and beaten all-comers in their record-breaking ten-match winning sequence this season, but ultimately there was no hiding place from the English chariot.

It had been a rollicking good ride and it's surely better to have travelled and fleetingly caught a glimpse of the promised land than never to have travelled at all.

Overall, we can reflect on our best season in almost two decades but dreams of a first Grand Slam in 55 years were ruthlessly extinguished by a five-try, 42-6 English win.

Afterwards the English coach, Clive Woodward, maintained that this 12th English slam, the first since 1995, did not remove a monkey from their backs - claiming it was a media invention. But it sure sounded and felt like it nonetheless.

Having seen three slams elude them on the last day of the championship in the previous four years, they weren't about to blow another. All the more so as a chunk of this team won't get another shot. Woodward even used Eminem's words at a team meeting on Saturday.

So, England had far more to lose. World Cup credibility and maybe a few seats on the plane to the World Cup as well. Woodward told his players as much too. Far from playing down the significance of this game, "I couldn't have built it up any more if I had tried," said the English manager/coach afterwards.

Damn and blast 'em, they were just too good and didn't budge an inch. Even before kick-off, when lining up to meet President Mary McAleese, the English squad ignored protocol by lining up on the right-hand side of the dressing-rooms on the premise that they would be playing from the south side of the ground in the first half.

So the Irish team emerged and lined up farther down the pitch, toward the flags on the south terrace, leaving one half of the red carpet unpopulated. Martin Johnson got hot and bothered as he refused requests to move. Just what the game needed then, a little extra edge.

Fears that Lansdowne Road might be taken over by the visiting hordes in a black market/corporate sell-out were dispelled. No Irish rugby team has ever taken the field to such a thunderous crack of noise.

Amhrán na bhFiann and even Ireland's Call bellowed around the crumbling crucible like never before.

Everyone could sense a special sporting collision was about to unfold, and for 40 minutes anyway it did. Ireland could ill afford the concession of a softish try to Lawrence Dallaglio, but trailing 10-6 they threw everything they knew at England.

It transpired they had kept a few tricks up their sleeves. Amazingly, considering England outscored Ireland by five tries to nil, the home side actually put more ball through their hands and reached their wingers more. Occasionally they penetrated, and once or twice they even outflanked them, but invariably, four or five white jerseys would cover across.

England held out, and the brilliant Jonny Wilkinson kicked his second drop goal with his weaker right foot - a laughable term really, nothing he does can be considered weak - for a 13-6 interval lead. It was, O'Sullivan conceded, "like a stake in the heart".

The third quarter was unrelentingly England, whereupon they began locating a soft underbelly in the Irish midfield and, after Mike Tindall's try on the hour, the final quarter was excruciating if you were Irish, but redemptory for England. They had a change of gears - Ireland didn't.

Graciously Woodward conceded that "the scoreline didn't reflect the game", adding "Ireland have had a great season and this result shouldn't diminish that. You don't win four out of four by being a bad team".

Afterwards, Eddie O'Sullivan took his players into a huddle and told them much the same. "We had to be disappointed to lose today but I wanted them to hold their heads up, stick their chests out and be proud of the performances they gave. They didn't leave anything behind, they gave it the whole 95 minutes.

"There's a lot to take out of the game, and a lot to take out of the season. I couldn't ask any more from a bunch of lads and I wanted them to know that."

They can feel rightly proud but they'll be the first to realise that the defensive system suddenly became a little porous in the last two games, leaking eight tries.

Furthermore, as O'Sullivan conceded yesterday, they have to start penetrating more.

In the games against Australia, France and England this season, Ireland have failed to score one try, and in their last seven games against the five countries ranked above them in the global pecking order, they've scored only three.

Woodward had said he couldn't contemplate Monday if they'd lost. For Ireland, the cold light of reality dawned yesterday.