‘Hairs were standing on back of my neck’

BEFORE the game, older players set the tone.

Andrew Trimble: “It’s always big the week of the England game. You get inspirational words from Paul O’Connell, Donncha (O’Callaghan) pitched in, so did Brian (O’Driscoll).”

Jonathan Sexton: “Brian and Paul spoke very well before the game about how much it meant to them and the younger guys really bought into it.”

Tommy Bowe: “When we came to Dublin earlier in the week there just seemed to be an atmosphere building towards the game, I don’t know if it was Paddy’s Day or what. Even on Saturday as we went to the ground the fans seemed to be everywhere: certainly going onto the field the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck.”

Three minutes: Ireland drive England back in the first scrum of the game.

Tommy Bowe: “That was a huge lift.”

Eoin Reddan: “Because you’re going forward you just leave it in. It was a great scrum and it boosted the lads and the entire stadium. It set the tone because it’s important people know you’ve a good scrum, and it’s key that the referee knows that when it comes to making 50-50 calls.

Four minutes: Jonathan Sexton runs an early penalty in his own 22.

Jonathan Sexton: “That’s how we’ve been trying to play. The out-half takes the brunt of most things and if we’d passed it wide and dropped the ball it wouldn’t have helped.

“In many ways you rely on other people for the outcome, and that can be frustrating. Not everybody looks at the bigger picture. I’m lucky I have great coaches at Leinster and Ireland who see the bigger picture and obviously they backed me on Saturday when it could easily have gone the other way. Nobody could have argued if it had gone the other way.”

15 minutes: Sexton finds his kicking range; after his second successful penalty makes it 6-0 he salutes England’s chatty winger, Chris Ashton.

Jonathan Sexton: “Ah, it was just good banter. He was telling me I should have been on the bench, I suppose, during the kicks. It was a good laugh, we spoke afterwards and he seems to be a good lad off the pitch, he likes to chat on it. Sometimes on the wing you don’t have a lot to do, you probably have to keep yourself in the game. He’s shown he’s a quality player in the championship.”

28 minutes: Brian O’Driscoll’s try is ruled out but Tommy Bowe intervenes with a legitimate score.

Tommy Bowe: “It was frustrating. I thought I’d put Brian in but we were called back for a forward pass. I’d gotten the ball a few times on the short side at that stage and maybe hadn’t made the right decisions, but that close to the line I’d always back myself.”

At half-time Ireland lead 17-3. With the rain spilling down they make an adjustment.

Jonathan Sexton: “We changed the way we played a little in the second-half when the weather came in. We knew that the weather was going to change around then, and that was right, for once.”

50 minutes: England rally when Eoin Reddan throws a pass Steve Thompson intercepts for an England try, 24-8.

Eoin Reddan: “We won’t talk about that. Gone already. Forgotten.”

A reporter mentions flashbacks to the interception thrown by Reddan against South Africa.

“I’m sure ye did (flashback), that’s your job. I’ll be thinking forward, don’t worry.”

60 minutes: England begin to make errors as they chase the game and Ireland keep them in check.

Tommy Bowe: “In the last few weeks opposing teams have had purple patches and we’ve not retaken the momentum. But against England we turned that around.”

69 minutes: Sexton is replaced by Ronan O’Gara with ten minutes left to thunderous applause.

Jonathan Sexton: “It was great to have an ovation like that. It was for Ronan as much as myself. There’s a lot said and written about the two of us and it was a great reception.”

78 minutes: Near the end a smiling Reddan is called ashore with Paul O’Connell.

Eoin Reddan: “The scoreline was such that we knew, with two or three minutes to go. I don’t remember much about the previous week, I was gone after 45 seconds, but Saturday was great.”

Full-time: Ireland 24, England 8.

Rory Best: “We feel we left games behind us. Against France we treaded water towards half-time and they got back in it. We came back towards the end and almost won it. This time we got ahead and kept building on it.

“It’s disappointing any time you go into the Six Nations and lose two games but we’re fortunate in that we have four warm-up games before going to the world cup. It’s taken us four games to click here so we’ll not want to go back to that.”

There’ll be pressure on individuals: “That’s the intensity, you know you need to be there for the collective to click. We went to the well on Saturday and there was plenty there.

Eoin Reddan: “Looking at the other games it’s important to keep the discipline. This time England played phases and phases but we weren’t giving away penalties. That has to stay.

“In attack we need to be clinical at the breakdown. We really see the benefit of that when we are because of the players we have outside, and our back row did that.”