There's something about this country that when we know the fates are with us, we are unstoppable. Ireland won a match yesterday . . .a match which unjustifiably they could have lost. But such is the character of this team that they acted as though success was the only possible outcome.

They are a fairly dogged bunch this lot, they got a couple of calls which went their way but it was their persistence which won it for them in the end. Persistency is what make the impossible possible, the possible likely and the likely definite. Coming into the last three minutes of this game you knew that Ireland were not out of it. If there was any natural justice left in this world, they would prevail.

Such was England's lack of self-belief that when they came into periods of dominance, they actually had to pinch themselves to believe that they had control of the game. Their time in possession and the level of quality field position that they had should have counted for something. But this English side lacked direction.

The man who could have influenced them was prowling up and down like a caged Lion.

Lawrence Dallaglio would never get onto the pitch and this was symptomatic of Andy Robinson's rudderless approach. They have lost three matches in this championship which, given their endless resources, is a disgrace. I would say now that England's mandarins are scheming and plotting.

Andy Robinson will no longer be England's coach by the time the summer comes about. His selection was a pathetic knee-jerk reaction and he replaced most of his mainstays with inferior players. He put out a very inexperienced team who had very little time to gel together.

Andy Goode, God bless him, filled the film title adequately.

He's fairly ugly and God bless him he was very bad yesterday. He had no concept of how to interact with Stuart Abbott and Mike Tindall and only in the first minute managed to link effectively with Jamie Noon. You could see Lee Mears, after he had coughed up four line-out turnovers, running after his jumpers across the pitch to say "What went wrong there?".

No more was England's lack of cohesion evident than in their back three. I met Ian McGeechan a couple of hours before the game and he thought Ireland would win too. But he had told me that Ben Cohen would start at fullback. Both of us surmised that if that was the case, England were gone. You have three pretty good finishers in Cohen, Tom Voyce and Mark Cueto but that's all they can do. They finished off long beautiful back-line movements. Don't ask them to catch or chase back or read a game tactically when the ball is put in behind them or to play ping pong correctly.

I found it incredulous that the BBC voted Andy Goode their Man of the Match. God, in his bounty and generosity, created more horse's arses than there are horses to attach them to. How anyone could consider him the best player is beyond me.

From Ireland's perspective, they got the best possible start. They conceded an early try to England which filled the home side with delusional notions of grandeur and thoughts of a turkey shoot with a rousing chorus of Swing Low. But it soon became evident just how well England would have to play to finish off Ireland. They just weren't up to the job.

I would have thought that Ireland would have had to have played somewhere near their very best to beat England but they were a long way short of their best rugby. It was a source of great satisfaction that Ireland could come over here to this 'fortress', play only to a reasonable level and come away with one of the great prizes in rugby.

Ireland struggled when England cranked it up up front. England's maul suddenly became dangerous and they gained momentum from it and launched their runners.

Their scrum too began to crank it up. But you felt, as England went through the phases, Ireland were still in the comfort zone. Even when Steve Borthwick got in under the posts, O'Kelly was obstructed even as he came up to cover.

Ireland really should have put the game away but they put themselves under a fair bit of pressure, conceding three or four needless penalties at kick-off time with minimal pressure applied. Ireland also started leaking turn-overs as England's time in possession began to tell. Again that infliction that became apparent in Paris, the final pass to a free man, killed it two or three times. Also, some of our outside backs' passing was poor.

Goode, after having an early nightmare with his kicks, found his cadence and range with a beauty in the 75th minute. But Ireland still had plenty of fizz. The coup de grace came in the 78th. The highly sub-standard Voyce (how could he drop Lewsey? ) fumbled O'Driscoll's chip. The Irish captain snaffled his kickback and fed Horgan, who should have backed himself to beat the cover first time round.

He checked and was caught in the corner. O'Driscoll ran up his bum but recycled quickly and Stringer threw a long pass out to Horgan who scored a legitimate try.

This is an exceptional side . . . exceptional in the sense that they know how to win. Points differential doesn't mean a toss to me. They are Triple Crown winners and joint champions. These are golden days.