England v Ireland: It seems a little trite or cliched to pencil in Ireland's victory at Twickenham under fortune favouring the brave. When Brian O'Driscoll called for the chip kick 10 metres from his own line at the end of Saturday's Six Nations Championship game, he loosed the shackles and took responsibility, shunning blackboard theory.

It was the defining moment of the Six Nations from an Irish perspective, not just because of the try that ensued but because it highlighted just what the team is capable of when they are not playing under certain constraints. The Irish backs took a risk and it paid off. That last statement is not one that has been made too often during the course of the tournament.

This Ireland team, the players, empowered themselves in that one instant to go out and win the match, refusing to hide behind patterns or parameters of play. It took courage but received an appropriate reward for the risk taken.

I used to fine the Leinster players €10 for every unsuccessful chip kick or drop at goal in a match.

My attitude was that unless a player was prepared to go and practice those skills I didn't want to see them try to employ them in a match. It was skill that ultimately rescued Ireland at Twickenham. The chip was perfect, O'Driscoll gathered the ball and when Shane Horgan was hauled down short, the players didn't panic.

They worked the opportunity with Peter Stringer throwing a great long pass and Horgan demonstrating the aggression and tenacity that have made him Ireland's player of the championship to reach out. It was a cracking game of rugby in terms of tension and effort with both sides playing their part.

There's no doubt Ireland enjoyed the rub of the green in terms of the decisions made by the officials regarding Horgan's first try and Ben Cohen being called back following a quick throw, the latter a prelude to Denis Leamy's try.

England also elected to kick to touch rather than at goal and that decision culminated in Paul O'Connell nicking the ball from under Simon Shaw's nose from the resulting lineout. Mention of the match officials allows me to revert to a point I made in these pages after the Italian match.

Then I spoke about the need to adopt the rugby league attitude to contentious decisions and not persevere with the rugby union version of only going to the television match official to rule on try scoring matters. Rob Dickson should have been in a position to say to referee Nigel Whitehouse: "Nigel I think the ball may have hit the line. Can we go upstairs to check it out?"

England would have been awarded a lineout and justice would have been served. So what if it takes a few seconds because next time it'll go against Ireland and then it'll be interesting to see if Irish players and supporters would be so laissez-faire about the outcome. It's for the good of the game.

Post-match talk shouldn't be about the officials; it should be about the game.

I really enjoyed the match as a contest and was obviously delighted with the outcome. The trick for Irish rugby is to go on from here. There's no point in being churlish as Eddie O'Sullivan deserves credit for a second Triple Crown in three years and a hat-trick of victories over England, two of them coming at Twickenham.

But equally, you can't paper over the cracks. This Ireland team are good enough to win a World Cup quarter-final and if you can do that then anything is possible. The best team in each of the World Cups, with the exception of 1987, didn't go on to win it. Ireland are good enough to win the Six Nations Championship but only if they realise their full potential.

In the next six months Ireland will play Australia twice, New Zealand twice and South Africa, and the team are, talent wise, capable of winning three of those matches. It is the Irish nature to be creative and unpredictable but the players must have the scope to do so.

O'Sullivan's record is excellent and so it should be with a great side. Teams like that should manage to produce great performances, achieve great results. To take this further he needs to swallow his ego and speak to the players about the direction the team should be going in and working to get the best from them.

Only twice in the championship, (when 40 points down against France and in that last play of the game against England) on both occasions when Ireland had nothing to lose, were the players given free rein and look what they achieved.

Ireland can't go to New Zealand and Australia, accept a hiding or hidings, shrug their shoulders and return home. This team are much better than that and have to set the bar higher.

One final aside: when in charge of Scotland we spent a great deal of time training in Stirling which is where the Scottish swim team were based. At the Commonwealth Games, the Scots have won four gold and three silver medals in the pool. Since 1930 they had only won four swimming gold medals prior to these championships.

There are no miracles in professional sport, no shortcuts, no overnight successes. Ireland have done the work and provided they adopt the correct approach this team haven't finished collecting silverware.