A brief flirtation with the England line in the last five minutes and the possibility of executing grand larceny without fear of prosecution were ruthlessly dismissed. In the process Ireland's Conor O'Shea confirmed what he had known for most of Saturday's Five Nations Championship game at Lansdowne Road - England's defence was awesome.

The Irish fullback came tantalisingly close to the English line with a powerful surge minutes from the finish with Ireland trailing 20-15 but was engulfed by Lawrence Dallaglio, and several of his team-mates followed a split second later for good measure.

O'Shea conceded: "I just couldn't stretch to the line - if I had, then the referee would have awarded it as a double movement against me. I was thinking of stretching but I convinced myself not to and just hoped we could recycle the ball and someone else would surely score.

"England, though, had a great defensive line. It was really quite awesome and it meant that we could never really get going. We are disappointed because we didn't get the foundations right in the first half. We only really played rugby for 15 minutes, but in fairness to England that was the only amount of time they allowed us to play.

"England were excellent - you've got to take your hat off to them. They beat South Africa based on their defence and they almost beat Australia, and it is incredibly difficult to break them down."

England's captain Dallaglio, voted man of the match, produced the most emphatic answer to his detractors after receiving criticism following the Scottish game. He preferred to dwell on the collective display. "We played 80 per cent of the second half in Ireland's territory. Our defence was tested but we came through with flying colours.

"I was disappointed that we did not put more points on the board in the first half, but that said our defence proved excellent throughout."

Irish out-half David Humphreys declined to take any pride in a fine personal performance, conceding that it brought very little satisfaction after Saturday's performance. "England were very well organised and slowed the ball down well at source. We are disappointed that we didn't manage to create any structure to our game.

"England's defence won the match for them, and although I kicked the penalties there is no satisfaction for me because today was all about trying to beat England."

It was easy to understand the frustration of players who believed that victory was attainable only to see their hopes crash. The pressure is on to win in Scotland on Saturday week to achieve the benchmark coach Warren Gatland set at the beginning of the season.

He targeted victories over Wales and Scotland and that is all Ireland can now attain. Humphreys conceded: "If we can manage that, then it will represent a reasonable season. But more importantly than that, we have been looking to develop our game throughout the tournament, and England showed certain areas that require very close attention before we play Scotland.

"The ability is definitely there, though, and we will go into the Scotland game with confidence."

Ireland's captain Paddy Johns was determined not to be too downbeat. "I think the side showed a lot of character in the periods when we had to defend under great pressure. I am proud of the way that the players defended and take some heart from our second half performance.

"We know that we have to work a lot harder for the Scottish game. I thought that when we went in only two points down at half-time that we had a very good chance."