SIX NATIONS: In the Croke Park stand Martin Johnson shook his head, smacked his fist into an open palm in utter frustration, as he witnessed his England side lose 14-13 to Ireland in a battle of attrition where the visitors indiscipline proved costly, while Declan Kidney's side remain on course for the Six Nations Grand Slam.
The England manager had good reason to be furious. Scrumhalf Danny Care was on his way to the sin-bin for the most senseless of barges into Marcus Horan’s back. He was the second England player to see yellow after Phil Vickery had been penalised earlier.
It brought England’s yellow card count to 10 in four matches as they gave away 16 penalties compared to Ireland's eight on the day.
"All you can do is keep hammering away," the Johnson suggesting his players are failing to listen to the message he is sending out. "It's all the more frustrating because we don't need to give away penalties. We've got to believe in ourselves more ... We let them (Ireland) off the hook."
"I'm angry for them, not for me," added Johnson continued, who said he had no complaints about South African referee Craig Joubert. "The penalty that really changed the game was Danny's. We went 14-6 down and had to play 10 minutes without a scrumhalf. I told him afterwards, when you're down on the penalty count that much, the referee will be looking at you."
Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll put in a man of the match performance by scoring his third try of the tournament and added a crucial drop goal from distance. The Leinster centre disputed Johnson's suggestions that England's indiscipline had cost them the match.
"That's not really for us to comment on because that's his prerogative and they're his words. All we're concerned about is how we performed," said O'Driscoll.
"I suppose it didn't help, it's difficult to play with 14, but then they scored their try at the end with 14 so you can look at it whatever way you want."
Kidney credited England's resilience and praised his own team for holding on to end the third weekend of matches as the only unbeaten side in the championship.
"England are not an easy team to pull away from. I think that's the third try they've conceded this year and they only conceded two in last year's Six Nations. You need to start giving a little bit of credit to how hard they are to break down," said Kidney, who also acknowledged Ronan O’Gara had an off day with the boot.
"You're never going to stay in a game for 80 minutes. Every team is going to have a good 10 minutes, I just think the boys did well to stay as patient and resilient as they did and didn't panic at any stage."
