Brian O'Driscoll: physical

Martin Johnson sat down in front of the press looking like he always looks. Like he was about to go into the manners-teaching business. Like he just heard one of the pressmen make a remark about his mother. Like his team had just had to spend yet another 20 minutes of yet another match with only 14 men on the pitch and like it had just cost them the game. He was in no doubt that the yellow cards picked up by Phil Vickery and Danny Care were ultimately the difference between the sides.

"It's not the same people who are committing the offences and it's not the same offences they're committing. So there's no pattern. It's just something we've been trying to sort out since the autumn and we've spent the past two weeks talking about it. We need to sort it out. They've got to understand they've just cost themselves a test match. You just can't do that. It was a good effort but ultimately you've just cost yourself a test match.

"They've got to trust themselves. We've done well again, giving away just one try away from home so the defence has been quite good. They need to trust in that and not get carried away with the passion of the game, making rash decision that they end up regretting. I'm not down, I'm just angry. Just angry for them that they've thrown away a win."

That didn't quite tally with the Irish view, Brian O'Driscoll pointing out afterwards that England had scored their try at the end while down to 14 men. The captain conceded Ireland were happy to get out with just the bare win but he knew as well as everyone else that the margin could well have been wider at the end.

"We made it bit harder on ourselves than we needed to in conceding as we did but in the end we worked it out and we won. We didn't stretch ourselves, we did what we needed to do and just let our defence kick in. Maybe we missed a few opportunities out there but that was one of the more physical matches I've played in a long, long time and we're happy to get out of it with the win."