Reaction: English coach Brian Ashton cut a forlorn figure in the home of the GAA on Saturday night.

Brian, what are your initial reactions to that?

"Are we live?"

Yes.

"Are we live on camera?"

Yes.

"Very disappointed."

Was this your worst nightmare?

"No, no. Look, we said all week how difficult this was going to be and that we had to go up two or three gears from where we played before. We made similar mistakes against Scotland and Italy and we didn't get punished.

"We got punished severely today by a side that was much sharper than we were. It's been a reality check for us. We knew it was going to come at some stage. We won two games and people start thinking: 'Wow! These guys might be world beaters again.' We knew we weren't.

"We've got to take that on the chin. We were stuffed. It's as simple as that, and that doesn't happen very regularly in international rugby."

The muscle-flexing department was one area England believed would ensure a competitive contest. Jonny Wilkinson could do the rest.

"That is something I didn't expect. What you trace that back to I haven't the faintest idea but there it was today."

Are you angry?

"I'm not pleased with a performance like that."

Memories of the nail-in-the-coffin "I don't know who's game plan that was but it certainly wasn't mine" quote Ashton uttered during his short Irish tenure came flooding back. But instead he adopted a more conciliatory tone.

"We're not going to use any excuse at all. We were outplayed by a much better side. Better than us up front. They were better than us physically. Much sharper. Fresher. Their decision making was much better than ours and they were much better in the tackle and collision areas, both offensively and defensively.

"We probably kicked the first eight balls straight back to Ireland. They pinned us in the 22.

"You don't want to play a side playing well at set-piece, 15 metres from your own line.

"I thought the Irish forwards played exceptionally well. Scrummaged much better than they had done in the previous games they played. I thought their lineout was good. When you get that sort of foundation, especially considering the back division Ireland have, more often than not you're in business."

Against Italy, Ashton took responsibility for getting the tactics wrong. This time it was collective blame.

So, if it was collective Brian, where was your defect today?

"Sorry?"

The question was repeated.

"Well, maybe because of the limited amount of time available maybe I got the organisational bit wrong. Maybe. We'll get together and talk about that. We weren't as fresh as Ireland appeared to be. They outsmarted us, thinking-wise, and pace-wise in almost every area of the field."

The Premiership's unrelenting fixture list continues to hinder the national team's progress. In contrast, the IRFU have all their ducks in a row.

How detrimental was a full round of club fixtures last weekend?

"It's almost impossible to quantify."

A lot then?

"You just do not know. When you are talking about freshness you are not only talking about the physical freshness. You are talking about the mental freshness as well in terms of moving from one game to the other."

Positives? The way new cap David Strettle dealt with the early attentions of Ronan O'Gara's boot. "He looks what he is. A try scorer. He also looked a pretty good footballer today. That was a plus for us.

"I don't feel embarrassed. I don't feel humiliated at all. I feel there is a hell of a lot of work to do. But we already knew that."