IT almost seemed preordained. Ronan O'Gara chipped the ball forward inside his own 22 before Brian O'Driscoll ran onto it and put Shane Horgan away on the right but the winger just didn't have the strength to cross the line. That time.

A phase or two later, Peter Stringer drifted a pass over the heads of three England defenders and into the hands of Horgan who did remarkably well to avoid Lewis Moody's tackle, stay in-field and touch the ball down in one swift movement and with the aid of the television official, the game was Ireland's.

The Twickenham crowd couldn't believe it but you couldn't really deny Eddie O'Sullivan's side deserved their victory. They put in a huge effort, both mentally and physically and while England were doughty, there's little doubt the better team earned the victory and as a direct result, the Triple Crown.

In talking of how Ireland deserved it, it would be rude not to mention the Paddy's weekend luck that fell their way for Horgan first try and, arguably, Denis Leamy's 60th minute effort. But that's just a passing mention because you take everything you can in this game, especially after a sloppy Irish start. The sound of 'Land of Hope and Glory' blaring from the tannoys before the game was enough to wake the dead, and it certainly worked the trick for a previously comatose England.

Straight from the off, Paul O'Connell failed to catch the dropping ball, Gordon D'Arcy knocked it on as he attempted to tidy things up and from the resulting scrum Andy Goode skipped two of his backline to put Jamie Noon away in the left hand corner.

There was England's hope, if not the glory but they didn't seem to be having any of the luck. Six minutes after Noon's effort, touch-judge Rob Dickson made a horrible error to bring Ireland level.

The incident came about as Brian O'Driscoll put a fairly harmless grubber through to Ben Cohen who slipped just before the ball reached him.

Shane Horgan was bang on the scene to pick up the pieces but all of Twickenham could see that the ball had touched the tram-line before the Irish wing threw a boot at it.

Every single soul expect Dickson, that is, who signalled to referee Nigel Whitehouse for play to continue and Horgan, like the good professional that he is, flopped on the ball over the line.

Maybe there was something in this Irish luck thing after all. Dickson's error steadied Ireland who appeared to be drifting into one of their slow starts. They started to hold on to a bit of the ball and from a 20-metre maul of a line-out, England infringed to halt it and O'Gara knocked over the penalty to put Ireland in front.

They could have been further in front had the out-half kicked a relatively simple kick on 19 minutes but this time his unerring boot wasn't so unerring.

The same could be said of Goode, the Leicester goal kicking supreme, who contrived to miss two kickable penalties within the space of 90 seconds. Not the best way to ease into your first Six Nations start.

Those two earned penalties aside, England couldn't get their hands on the ball and were it not for Peter Stringer getting overexcited by tapping a penalty in front of the posts, Ireland would have been further in front. They did stretch their lead on 36 minutes after their best period of play in the entire tournament.

Brave running, with depth for a change and some excellent passing through 12 phases saw Brian O'Driscoll attempt to put Gordon D'Arcy away in the left-hand corner but the pass was just too high for the number 12 to take in his stride.

Simon Shaw, though, had interfered with Stringer a couple of rucks previous and England were doubly punished as the second-row was sent to the sin-bin and O'Gara kicked the penalty to stretch Ireland's lead to six.

Goode did finally land a penalty just before half-time at the third attempt after Simon Easterby interfered from a re-start, but Ireland took their three-point lead into the break all the same.

It really should have been more especially as O'Gara missed another kickable effort in the fourth minute of injury time and the worry was that they'd be made to pay for their profligacy.

O'Gara and Goode exchanged penalties immediately after the re-start and then England enjoyed their best spell of the game.

They held onto the ball well and battered away at Ireland but just when it seemed that a Paul O'Connell line-out steal had eased the pressure, the home side regrouped and Steve Borthwick eventually slipped through a huge gap for England's second try.

Goode's simple conversion put England four in front but barely 10 minutes later Denis Leamy intercepted an awful Lee Mears line-out to leap over the line.

The big question was whether the Munster man had knocked on over the head of Lewis Moody on his way to the line but again Ireland got the call. O'Gara's convert restored his side's three-point half-time lead.

Things began to get a bit tetchy at this point . . . Jerry Flannery at the centre of most the aggro in the frontrow . . . and with seven minutes on the clock Simon Easterby was binned for impeding Matt Dawson as he attempted to take a quick penalty and Goode banged England level.

At 21-each, it was anyone's game and after Johnny O'Connor came in the wrong side of a ruck, Goode kicked his fourth penalty of the evening to edge England in front. But then came Horgan's try, O'Gara's conversion and Ireland's glory.

SCORING SEQUENCE 1 min Noon try, 5-0 6 mins Horgan try, 5-5 13 mins O'Gara pen, 5-8 31 mins O'Gara pen 5-11 33 mins Goode pen, 8-11 43 mins O'Gara pen, 8-14 44 mins Goods pen, 11-14 52 mins Borthwick try, Goode con 18-14 58 mins Leamy try, O'Gara con 18-21 69 mins Goode pen, 21-21 75 mins Goode pen, 24-21 77 mins Horgan try, O'Gara con 24-28