English dash Irish hopes on day to forget

It was a day that promised fireworks and fizzbangs but, in the end, the only pyrotechnics on show were those that greeted the Ireland and England teams onto the pitch at a wet and ultimately miserable Aviva Stadium.

This was rugby that only the purist could love: Tough, uncompromising trench warfare of a type where wingers were relegated in the main to a watching brief and a battle against hypothermia.

All of which would have been bearable had Ireland won but they didn’t. Matter of fact, they all but beat themselves.