John O'Sullivan finds front-row colossus Reggie Corrigan exhausted but happy

It's a different type of scrum, the media clamouring for soundbites, an explanation of a famous victory at Twickenham. Reggie Corrigan walks slowly through the door, scrolls through the text messages on his mobile - 50 or so - smiles and shrugs. "It's funny, when you lose no one wants to know you."

It's taken a long time for him to reach the interview area, the physical toll of the match hugely debilitating. It's not just the Leinster captain who was rooted for a long period to the dressing-room bench, unable to move, every last ounce of energy spent.

The Irish celebrations had been brief because no one had the wind to whoop it up in the immediate aftermath. Corrigan explains: "It (the dressing-room) was very quiet. Everyone was shattered. There was some hugging and cheering. When we beat Australia in Lansdowne Road it was more upbeat and that was because we hadn't expended as much energy as we did today.

"Today people were clapping each other on the back but then it was a case of sitting down and thinking, 'Give me some water, give me some air, give me something.' You looked around and appreciated that everyone had given everything. There was nothing left. It took us a good hour to get changed afterwards.

"We wanted to get out and see family and friends but just couldn't get the energy. You literally wanted someone to shower you, change you and put you on the bus."

There was the emotional trauma of that last, grinding 10 minutes, the whiff of victory mixed with an odour of fear: "It was the most terrifying last 10 minutes of my life."

In the build-up the players had spoken of that hollow feeling after being beaten out the gate. They resolved not to experience it again, but as Corrigan said, they knew Lady Luck would have to bestow a few favours.

"We knew how big a task coming over here was and how things were going to have to go for us and we were going to have to get the odd bounce of a ball and play as well as we've ever played. We were going to have to defend like demons. Everything had to be right to win. To be honest it didn't look that way when Rog hit the post with that first penalty. You were saying, 'Is this going to be a bit of an omen?' He had some balls to get up for the next one and stick it straight over.

"Our lineout was awesome, our scrum was solid. The back line moved and used ball when they got it well. Darce made some great breaks and I thought we scored a fantastic try but there were a couple of turning points, notably the double movement of Ben Cohen and an incredible tackle by Mal when he stopped Mark Regan. He came from nowhere and bowled him into the flag. They are the kind of things that you have to do.

"Every time anyone mades a tackle they got up off the ground and did something else; they looked to carry the ball, make some sort of an impact and impression on the game. Everyone was talking. Exhaustion levels were huge but we just kept running.

"The thing that kept us going was that whenever you looked up, they looked worse. They were behind and however bad it is to be that exhausted . . . when you look over and see your opposite number is just as bad if not worse and you're ahead on that scoreboard, it gives you that extra something to keep you going."

Once facet of the game that infused belief was the lineout. "We were in a situation where we would kick the ball out and let them have a lineout because we knew we were able to win it. If you're going to win rugby matches it has to be won in the front five. It's always been the way, it'll always be the way. That provides the platform for all the stars in the back row and back line to do their fancy footwork. The beautiful thing about this game is there is always a place for big, awkward oafs like myself as well."

Corrigan smiled as conversation drifted to Triple Crown talk. "It's a realistic goal but we have to stay focused on the Italian game. I know Matt Williams is not going to come to Dublin handing us a Triple Crown. We are going to have to fight and battle. The Scots are going through a bit of a bad phase but they will target that game as their seasonal swansong."

There is no real vicarious pleasure at upsetting the plans of the Six Nations organisers, who envisaged a winner-take-all clash between France and England in Paris in the final round of matches. Corrigan insisted Ireland don't want to be considered makeweights, happy with the occasional hurrah.

"We feel we are a team on the way up. We expect great things and high standards of ourselves. We were very disappointed we didn't perform better in France and were quite hard on ourselves that we didn't perform better.

"We have come to a level that we're not willing to accept playing below par. I think we are a force to be reckoned with in this competition and today will have gone a long way towards reinforcing that."

No doubt about it.