Ireland 43 England 13: Silence had dutifully been granted Jonny Wilkinson as he made it 26-13, although the Irish crowd had drawn a line at the first strains of Swing Low .
That was enough hospitality from the Irish team too. Nearing the hour, cometh the man, and Paul O'Connell, with more than a little help from Donncha O'Callaghan and company, drove Martin Corry back as if he'd run headlong into a train. If there was a defining moment in this momentous match, that was it.
When the ever-alert Joël Jutge spotted Julian White stamping on O'Callaghan, there was only ever going to be one outcome when Ronan O'Gara took aim. The, eh, English comeback had been stopped pretty much at source.
All day long, no-one drew the lines in the sand more compellingly than O'Connell. Towering in the air, off restarts and at lineout time, he literally led the charge into contact with a vintage display. Man on a mission. No one can play like this all the time, but Ireland's forward totem was due a big one. He knew it. We knew it. And he, along with all his team-mates, delivered big-time.
It came as no surprise that Ireland had much the more dynamic back row and midfield, often combining in defence to double tackle English ball carriers as part of a compelling defensive effort, and vastly better when linking in possession. David Wallace, with his inimitable and brilliant ball-carrying, was the most eye-catching of the back row but Simon Easterby and Denis Leamy were no less effective, Leamy working tirelessly at the breakdown and making something even out of nothing ball. Right now you wouldn't swap him for any number eight in the world.
As pleasing was the dominance of the tight five, supreme in their setpieces and excellent in their clearing out at ruck time. After all the flak from Leicester's win at Thomond Park, Marcus Horan and John Hayes will rarely have felt such satisfaction.
Horan has put together two huge performances at Jones's Road, his dynamism augmented by Hayes's seismic fringe tackling, and few Irish players tackle more effectively than Rory Best.
Ireland nicked three English throws, losing only one of theirs, and retained 11 out of 11 scrums; in tangible terms, Ireland's scrum yielded 13 points. Thanks for the dance and good night.
Whatever buttons coach Eddie O'Sullivan and the management staff, or Brian O'Driscoll and the players, pressed, they were all the right ones.
For all the naked aggression in contact from the off, it was a cagey opening, which O'Sullivan likened to shadow boxing, and here Ireland were the cuter.
Not all the kicks were initially on the money, but helped by Girvan 'Safe Hands' Dempsey having a proverbial blinder and both wingers looking consummately assured, working off front-foot ball and Peter Stringer's rapid-fire service, O'Gara gradually manoeuvred England like an orchestra conductor.
Working the ball across the line to share the line kicking with O'Gara also prevented the English wingers from hanging back too deep (though debutant David Strettle had a nerveless youth about him under an early barrage) while also giving O'Driscoll and co more time to locate that space. When Josh Lewsey hung too far back, O'Gara threw in a crossfield kick for Denis Hickie.
England's kicking game wasn't helped by often-lamentable execution, but here and in much else, O'Sullivan appeared to utterly outthink Brian Ashton.
Another key factor was Ireland's discipline; they conceded only eight penalties to England's 12; critically all but two were beyond even Wilkinson's radar.
So, Wilkinson's opening three-pointer was unerringly cancelled out by three penalties from the trusty boot of O'Gara, so "in the zone" in these foul conditions that his goalkicking, eight from eight for a 21-point haul, was ridiculously good.
Credit to Dempsey for breaking Wilkinson's tackle in the prelude to the first of them, to Gordon D'Arcy for holding up Andy Farrell sufficiently for Leamy and Wallace to force the second one and then to O'Connell for dominating the air for half a dozen minutes as if Croker had become his personal playground.
So Ireland started to probe, unleashing the midfield maestros in tandem with Shane Horgan, putting the ball through the hands and offloading more.
Horgan's influence grew, a dummy and offload instigating Easterby's stunning diagonal break and rumble to the corner.
Stringer, for once, briefly overplayed his hand but D'Arcy's sleight of hand and O'Driscoll's straightening of the line - the stuff he does in his sleep - put Dempsey over.
England were now petrified, not least of O'Driscoll, who took seemingly half their team with him on a crossfield jaunt before Horgan cut through on the cutback. Ireland cranked up their scrum for Wallace to shunt Joe Worsley over his own line and then force his own way over.
Ireland didn't need half-time, and Horan had another feather in his cap when Vickery was penalised for boring in, O'Gara making it 26-3. Unsurprisingly, England had their moments when, finally, Farrell, Matt Tait and Lewsey put some width on the ball for Strettle to take D'Arcy's hit and score adroitly in the corner - though even here Horgan might have prevented the score had he trusted the drift inside him.
But O'Gara having made it 29-13, Ireland upped the tempo to dizzying heights, certainly for the men in white. At times, Ireland's daring handling and offloading in the teeming rain made what should have been a proverbial bar of soap almost magnetic. The Fields reverberated. On cue, Leamy rumbled off a scrum to such effect O'Gara scarcely had a white shirt within 10 metres as he picked out Horgan with a crosskick the latter plucked out of the air above the hapless Lewsey.
Fittingly drawing on Horgan's Gaelic football roots and athleticism, the score appeared pre-ordained, and despite a premature party breaking out England's abysmal lack of cohesion manifested itself in Isaac Boss's gleefully taken intercept try.
Ireland were worth a 40-pointer. It might easily have been a 50-pointer. Obscenely good fun right to the end.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 2 mins : Wilkinson pen 0-3; 6 : O'Gara pen 3-3; 20 : O'Gara pen 6-3; 26 : O'Gara pen 9-3; 30 : Dempsey try, O'Gara con 16-3; 37 : Wallace try, O'Gara con 23-3 (half-time 23-3); 43 : O'Gara pen 26-3; 47 : Strettle try, Wilkinson con 26-10; 56 : Wilkinson pen 26-13; 57 : O'Gara pen 29-13; 65 : Horgan try, O'Gara con 36-13; 79 : Boss try, Wallace con 43-13.
IRELAND : G Dempsey (Leinster); S Horgan (Leinster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster, captain), G D'Arcy (Leinster), D Hickie (Leinster); R O'Gara (Munster), P Stringer (Munster); M Horan (Munster), R Best (Ulster), J Hayes (Munster); D O'Callaghan (Munster), P O'Connell (Munster); S Easterby (Llanelli), D Wallace (Munster), D Leamy (Munster). Replacements : J Flannery (Munster) for R Best (63 mins), N Best (Ulster) for Easterby (70 mins), S Best (Ulster) for Hayes (71 mins), A Trimble (Ulster) for O'Driscoll (73 mins), M O'Driscoll (Munster) for Leamy, I Boss (Ulster) for Stringer, P Wallace (Ulster) for O'Gara (all 77 mins).
ENGLAND : O Morgan (Gloucester); J Lewsey (London Wasps), M Tindall (Gloucester), A Farrell (Saracens), D Strettle (NEC Harlequins); J Wilkinson (Newcastle Falcons), H Ellis (Leicester Tigers); P Freshwater (Perpignan), G Chuter (Leicester Tigers), P Vickery (London Wasps, captain); L Deacon (Leicester Tigers), D Grewcock (Bath); J Worsley (London Wasps), M Lund (Sale Sharks), M Corry (Leicester Tigers). Replacements : M Tait (Newcastle Falcons) for Morgan (30 mins), T Rees (London Wasps) for Lund (half-time), J White (Leicester Tigers) for Freshwater (44 mins), T Palmer (London Wasps) for Grewcock (54 mins), S Perry (Bristol Rugby) for Ellis (68 mins), L Mears (Bath) for Chuter (72 mins). Not used : T Flood (Newcastle Falcons).
Referee: Joël Jutge (France).
