Six Nations

Ireland put an enormous dent in England's Six Nations dreams when they beat them 20-16 at Twickenham on Saturday - leaving the table-topping French as the only unbeaten team in the competition.

Not only does this leave the French with a strong chance of securing the grand slam, but it means England can also no longer win the Triple Crown.

England v Ireland: Irish player ratings
England v Ireland: English player ratings
Mallett salutes 'fantastic' win
Some Six Nations statistics, Round 3

How on earth did Ireland do it? They had so little possession and so few chances and yet they won. They did it by tackling. They tackled over five times as often as England did and they got three chances to score tries and Tommy Bowe scored on two of those occasions and  Keith Earls on the other. The team with hardly any ball and, especially in the second half, little time in England's half scored three tries to one and at least for that reason deserved to win. But it was close. Those last 10 minutes were frantic.

First Jonny Wilkinson kicked a dropped goal to put England 16-13 ahead with England seemingly strangling Ireland - and the game - to death. But Ronan O'Gara, on for Jon Sexton, kicked Ireland into a good position and Ireland had a line-out near the England 22. Paul O'Connell won the ball and threw it from the top to Tomas O'Leary who took a few steps to his left and then gave the ball to a flying Tommy Bowe who was off his right wing and raced inside Wilkinson and then simply past Ugo Monye who was left groping air and away from James Haskell to score at the posts and delight all of Ireland. O'Gara converted.

There were still seven minutes to play and England did their best to carry on bashing and strangling and they got close. A penalty gave them an attacking line-out which gave them a moving maul which gradually disintegrated, ended unsatisfactorily and produced a scrum for Ireland five metres from their line. O'Gara cleared but just to the 22 and England bashed again till Ireland won a turnover and Jamie Heaslip kicked the ball out.  Never has sad Fields of Athenry sounded so happy.

England's forward domination was almost complete. They ruled the scrums, got their own line-outs and kept possession. But they kept possession slowly and without plan or conviction. Such slow ball may be the way England want to play or it may just be that it took time to tell players  to do what they should have been penalised for doing. Whatever, it made for a plodding game. Ireland managed to get quicker ball from tackles but this was rare.

One thing was obvious was that there is real spirit in the Irish team and calm heads. England had twice as many penalties and three times as many line-outs, but still the Irish soldiered on.

They scored two brilliant tries while England's came from slow bashing till eventually the television match official decided somehow that Dan Cole had grounded the ball under the Ireland posts to bring the score to 13-all.

England started badly when Wilkinson fluffed the kick-off and then Bowe beat him in the air. The men in green were fresh then and eager to attack. They won a turnover and went right. Sexton did a little dummy and then grubbered into the vacant English in-goal where Bowe beat  Lewis Moody to the touchdown as the ball bounced benignly into his arms. 5-0 after 3 minutes.

Wilkinson, who had missed a simple opportunity to score a penalty goal, then goaled one when Cian Healy was penalised at a tackle and Stephen Ferris added 10 metres to the England cause,  found guiltily of not being 10 metres back at a tapped penalty. 5-3 after 15 minutes.

Sexton, who had missed a penalty kick at goal, goaled one when Dylan Hartley infringed at a tackle. 8-3 after 29 minutes.

There was a spark of life in the damp game when Earls counterattacked, beat three defenders and then chipped for the in-goal  but Care beat Heaslip to the ball. Ireland carried on attacking but O'Connell lost the ball in a tackle and England were the ones to score when O'Connell was offside at a line-out and Wilkinson goaled. That brought the score at half-time to 8-6.

John Hayes had led his team on, looking embarrassed, to celebrate his century of Test matches, but he had a hard old time of it in the scrums and eventually he was subbed. He was penalised at a scrum but O'Leary hung onto the ball,. which annoyed short-fused Care who attacked him, provoking a more general outburst of emotion. On the advice of his assistant the referee reversed the penalty. Ireland kicked it out for a five-metre line-out and then bashed till O'Leary gave to Sexton on the short side and the youthful flyhalf sent a perfect past beyond Care to Earls who was over in the corner. 13-6 after 55 minutes.

Care made up when he grubbered towards the Irish line. Earls fell back to the ball but carried it over, giving England a five metre scrum.  When it has stopped being a mess of three collapses and three resets, England bashed and bashed and eventually Cole scored. 13-all with 20 minutes to play.

There was a long hold-up. Brian O'Driscoll was on the ground, head raised when O'Connell's knee hit his head and the Irish captain was taken off on a stretcher, but the good new was that he returned to congratulate his team as they skipped off after the final whistle/

Increasingly England were on top and they even started to get quicker ball from tackles. Ireland brought on O'Gara but Care had a long break from a scrum and England attacked till Wilkinson sat back and right-footed a drop to give his side the lead for the first time in the match with 10 minutes to play.

Three minutes later Bowe scythes through for the winning try and the Irish found zest in tackling opponents'.

Man of the Match: It was not a match for outstanding personal performances but there was Tommy Bowe with his two tries, especially the second. But the hero had to come from defenders and perhaps the most vigorous of them all was Jamie Heaslip, our Man of the Match.

Moment of the Match: Tommy Bowe's try.

Villain of the Match: Nobody though Danny Care's rush of blood to the head ended in a try for Ireland.

The scorers:

For England:
Try: Cole
Con: Wilkinson
Pens: Wilkinson 2
DG: Wilkinson

For Ireland:
Tries: Bowe 2, Earls
Con: O'Gara
Pen: Sexton

Teams

England: 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Mark Cueto, 13 Mathew Tait, 12 Riki Flutey, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Lewis Moody, 6 James Haskell, 5 Steve Borthwick, 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Tim Payne
Replacements: 16 Lee Mears, 17 David Wilson, 18 Louis Deacon, 19 Joe Worsley 20 Paul Hodgson, 21 Toby Flood, 22 Ben Foden.

Ireland: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Leo Cullen, 19 Shane Jennings , 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 Andrew Trimble

Referee: Mark Lawrence (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Christophe Berdos (France), David Changleng (Scotland)
TMO: Carlo Damasco (Italy)