No excuses as errors cost dearly

It was either Danny Grewcock of Austin Healey. One or the other almost caused England coach Clive Woodward to explode in a hissing fit at the end of the Six Nations Championship at Lansdowne Road. A face like thunder at the final whistle, he half-shouted in exasperation and marched quickly towards the dressing-room. In less than five minutes he had returned to do the RT╔ television interview, composed and gracious in defeat.

Grewcock had spurned an overlap in the dying minutes of the game while Healey's knock-on prompted the Leicester man and second-half replacement for Dan Luger to bemoan, "I made a crucial error at a crucial time and it will stay with me for all time. I can't take any positives out of this because there are none to take. We let ourselves and out country down."

Woodward cut a thoughtful if rather forlorn figure, surrounded by a phalanx of security men, as he meandered through the car park at the back of the West Stand to the media interview area. Matt Dawson was excused duty and as Woodward later laughed for the England captain it had been a disappointing day. "He's damaged a hamstring, lost out on a Grand Slam and now he's sitting waiting to pee into a bottle" (Dawson had to undergo the post-match doping control).

Despite the grating disappointment of having a third successive Grand Slam snatched away by the Celtic brotherhood, Woodward refused to make excuses. Questions about what might have happened had the injured Martin Johnson been fit to take his place were given short shift. Woodward was not looking for excuses. "We deserved to lose. I can't believe how many errors we made and I just couldn't believe what I was watching near the end.

"It can happen and it's happened again unfortunately. This is obviously massively disappointing, especially for the players, and you know these chances don't come often. For a few of them it could be their last chance."

England centre Mike Catt was adamant that it was Ireland's greater will to win that helped them to prevail.

"There wasn't much we could do without the ball in the first half. They had a lot more passion than we did out there. Their hits were bigger and in the end they wanted it more than we did. We weren't creative enough to be honest and we just weren't on our game. We tried to kick as well as they did and I think they controlled the ball really well in the first half and all credit to them."

He went on to say that the blame rested squarely on the shoulders of the players. "We had to come to Lansdowne Road under a lot of pressure to win one Grand Slam in three years and we've thrown it away. There's nothing the management can do about it, it's purely the players. It's just one of those things."

Captain for the day Matt Dawson continued the theme of graciousness in defeat. "They were awesome. We knew that they would overperform and we knew we had to do that as well but we didn't. It is pretty hard to take. We have come up against three teams who have played out of their skins over the last three years and they have outplayed us but in a way that proves the worth of the Six Nations Championship.

"Whenever any team plays against another side away from home, you have to be at your very best."

And with that the England players filed onto the coach - one that they had specially transported from England. The tinted windows hid a multitude but it was still possible to make out the occasional glum face as they bade farewell to both Lansdowne Road and another Grand Slam opportunity.