Hickie: England defence awesome

DENIS HICKIE believes Ireland played some of their best rugby of the season yesterday - and credited England's awesome defence with the fact that the Irish finished without a try.

"We played some of our best rugby today and what was most horrible for us was that we didn't score a try in the first half," he admitted.

"We took wrong options and they defended very well. With twenty minutes to go, we were fourteen points behind and there's no next week for us. So we had to take risks and with risks you get exposed and the last twenty minutes were a shame. The safe thing is to put the ball into touch but you can't win a game like that, not when you're chasing."