Ireland 19 England 13: When you know how to win, you know how to win. And, by extension, when you know how to lose, you know how to lose. England had the winning of this match, but ultimately didn't know how, whereas Ireland dug deep defensively, struck stealthily, and then, being Ireland, dug even deeper to hang on.
With this England's season is over. The world champions went down to their third successive defeat in this season's RBS Six Nations, their fourth loss in a row and, incredibly, their ninth in a dozen games since conquering the globe.
World champs to world chumps might be stretching it, but it's a staggering decline.
By contrast, Ireland were winning their 17th game out of 18 at Lansdowne Road, avenging that sole defeat in the Grand Slam shoot-out two seasons ago, and in the process recording their third straight win in the championship and their sixth in succession in an unblemished season to date.
It's becoming a little bit like watching Munster at Thomond Park, or for that matter any of the provinces in the Heineken European Cup, for they don't lose at home either. The bottom line is, they don't panic.
Like when England battered away for much of the third quarter, save for a long-range penalty attempt by Ronan O'Gara. Stretching Ireland hither and tither, and from flank to flank, England had abandoned the slow- tempo attacking game of the first half. Instead of battering away close in off good set-piece platforms, or probing the blind side, they went for quicker off-the-top ball at lineout time; Charlie Hodgson (growing in confidence) took the ball flatter, set up targets outside him and they quickened up their ball release at ruck time as well.
The defensive effort was Herculean. But it wasn't, as Irish coach Eddie O'Sullivan said afterwards, just about bravery and putting bodies on the line. There had to be intense concentration and discipline about it as well. Defending inside out, they chose the right time to hold the line, or push up quickly, especially Girvan Dempsey, Denis Hickie and Geordan Murphy out wide.
In another excellent day all-round for O'Sullivan and his back-up staff, no-one will have felt more satisfied with the collective effort than defensive coach Mike Ford.
When England's collective pressure eventually saw Hodgson drop back into the pocket and opt for a drop goal, there was almost a sense of relief around the ground. It was also shared by the Irish players, albeit mixed with a confidence that England couldn't breach them.
Within two minutes Ireland were ahead. Cometh the hour, give or take a minute, cometh the man. Attacking left to right inside half-way, in a move honed on the training ground earlier in the week, Brian O'Driscoll swapped places in midfield with Shane Horgan, whose straight decoy run held Jamie Noon as O'Driscoll passed behind him for Denis Hickie coming across from left wing to ghost through the English line.
It was perfectly executed, and though Hickie was held up, from the recycle Peter Stringer went blind. Geordan Murphy, limping since one of his trademark recovering slides on to a loose ball in the first half, produced what O'Driscoll later described as "a bit of Geordy magic" to sell Hodgson the sweetest of dummies and locate O'Driscoll on the touchline via a helpful hand from Hodgson.
The image of O'Driscoll dancing up the touchline with about a cigarette paper to spare and then narrowing the angle may become one of the defining images of the season, much like Girvan Dempsey's slide into the left corner at Twickenham last season.
The lead had changed hands for a sixth time, and last time.
Ireland, inevitably, didn't have anything like the same lineout platform they had a year ago. In an intriguing battle within a battle, with constant movement up and down the line, a huge variety of targets and England using short return balls from the front to Steve Thompson effectively, honours were about shared - Ireland losing two of their 18 throws and England two of their 17 according to the computacenter stats.
England also scrummed big, and with Martin Corry the game's biggest ball carrier, took the match to Ireland for long stretches - having the ball for seven and a half minutes longer and enjoying a similar advantage in terms of territory.
Lewis Moody, too, had a big game, and Hodgson's nerve held, by and large, not least with regard to his goal-kicking.
Paul O'Connell, amazingly for a secondrow, led the tackle count with 15, followed by Johnny O'Connor, who was of constant destructive nuisance value and lasted the full 80 for the first time. Anthony Foley, as streetwise a number eight as any around, wasn't far behind, while O'Driscoll's performance, as ever, was about mucking in and tracking his men hungrily.
They had to be opportunistic as well, and O'Gara, striking the ball beautifully, supplemented two penalties with a couple of deftly taken drop goals either side of them to cancel out Hodgson's long-range penalty and conversion of Corry's try, as he picked and went straight up the middle while O'Gara was taken out off the ball by Danny Grewcock.
Ireland had an almighty reprieve just before the break when Jonathan Kaplan ruled that Mark Cueto was fractionally ahead of Hodgson for a cross-kick Being Ireland, of course, they had to put themselves - and us - through the wringer.
The chance to put breathing space on the scoreboard evaporated with a rare case of white line fever, as a driving maul infield went to ground under the English posts and, amid some hesitancy about a plan B, O'Gara missed with a left-footed drop goal.
So there was some more backs-to-the-wall defending to be done, not least by Hickie when timing his tackle on Cueto from another crosskick by Hodgson, and then getting to his feet to tackle Josh Lewsey from the offload in a brilliant reprise of a similar double defensive play in Rome.
Declining a certain three points to go to the corner, England mauled over the Irish line but O'Gara managed to get his body under Lewsey and O'Connor drove him back; to much relief Kaplan awarding Ireland a put-in without recourse to the video.
O'Connell was congratulated by O'Driscoll, O'Gara and Hickie for a monster hit on Matt Stevens which typified the resistance. In that moment, as much as any other, you somehow knew Ireland weren't letting England in. Winners alright.
Scoring sequence: 4 mins: O'Gara dp gl, 3-0; 7: Corry try, Hodgson con, 3-7; 10: O'Gara pen, 6-7; 13: O'Gara pen, 9-7; 25: Hodgson pen 9-10; 33: O'Gara dp gl, 12-10; Half-time 12-10; 56: Hodgson dp gl, 12-13; 58: O'Driscoll try, O'Gara con, 19-13.
IRELAND: G Murphy (Leicester); G Dempsey (Leinster/Terenure College), B O'Driscoll (Leinster/Blackrock College, capt), S Horgan (Leinster/Lansdowne), D Hickie (Leinster/St Mary's College); R O'Gara (Munster/Cork Constitution), P Stringer (Munster/Shannon); R Corrigan (Leinster/Greystones), S Byrne (Leinster/Blackrock College), J Hayes (Munster/Bruff), M O'Kelly (Leinster/St Mary's College), P O'Connell (Munster/Young Munster), S Easterby (Llanelli), J O'Connor (Wasps), A Foley (Munster/Shannon). Replacements: M Horan (Munster-Shannon) for Corrigan (68 mins). Not used: F Sheahan (Munster/Cork Constitution), D O'Callaghan (Munster/Cork Constitution), E Miller (Leinster/Terenure College), G Easterby (Leinster/Blackrock College), D Humphreys (Ulster/Dungannon), K Maggs (Ulster/Belfast Harlequins).
ENGLAND: J Robinson (Sale Sharks, capt); M Cueto (Sale Sharks), J Noon (Newcastle Falcons), O Barkley (Bath), J Lewsey (London Wasps); C Hodgson (Sale Sharks), H Ellis (Leicester Tigers); G Rowntree (Leicester Tigers), S Thompson (Northampton Saints), M Stevens (Bath), D Grewcock (Bath), B Kay (Leicester Tigers), J Worsley (London Wasps), L Moody (Leicester Tigers), M Corry (Leicester Tigers). Replacements: M Dawson (Wasps) for Ellis (70 mins). Not used: A Titterrell (Sale Sharks), D Bell (Bath), S Borthwick (Bath), A Hazell (Gloucester), A Goode (Leicester Tigers), O Smith (Leicester Tigers).
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa).
