Tommy Bowe and Ireland demolish England's Six Nations grand slam hopes

Ireland 24-8 England
Rate the England and Ireland players
Ireland's Tommy Bowe goes over for a try against England in the Six Nations as Tom Wood tackles
Ireland's Tommy Bowe goes over for a try against England in the Six Nations despite Tom Wood's attempted tackle. Photograph: Cathal Mcnaughton/Reuters

England saved their worst for last. There was no grand slam repeat of Dublin 2003, merely the slamming of a door. The team that provided most of the illumination in a largely twilit Six Nations became a victim of their own predictability. Ireland played on England's lack of variety and feasted on errors, and Jonathan Sexton, the villain in Cardiff last weekend, was the architect of a victory every bit as comfortable and comprehensive as the scoreline suggested.

There was a point in the second half, with England trailing by 21 points, when the destiny of the title itself looked to be an issue, never mind the grand slam. Their three musketeers, Ben Youngs, Toby Flood and Chris Ashton, three players who had helped redefine England's approach, had been silenced by Ireland's musket.

Youngs and Flood had been substituted by then and, while Ashton remained on the field, the wing summed up his side's error-speckled evening by blowing England's one move of note, finding Gordon D'Arcy with his pass rather than a colleague after breaking into the home 22. The swallow diver had to swallow failure but if he and his half-backs gain strength from a chastening experience, against a side that boasted virtually double the number of caps, success will beckon again.

England's 9 and 10 were chaperoned along dead ends. If the referee Bryce Lawrence's decision to send Youngs to the sin-bin five minutes before the end of the first half for passing the ball into touch to prevent Ireland from taking a quick throw-in five meters out seemed harsh, England had been too ready to concede penalties in dangerous positions not just all game but all tournament.

Youngs's ability to lift the tempo of a game by attacking when defences were at their most vulnerable, either after a turnover or a penalty, had helped take England to the brink of success but, like Flood, he was watched attentively by Ireland and neither had recourse to a tactical variation. It was Ireland, through the maligned Sexton, who divorced their stereotype and spiked their customary calculation and caution with a measure of risk. When Sexton ran a penalty from his own 25 in the second minute, he set the tone and immediately showed why he had been chosen ahead of Ronan O'Gara. Ireland would have been expected to have kicked the ball into touch and driven a lineout and England would have prepared for that.

Sexton forced them to deal with the unexpected. He ran another penalty later in the opening half, after his three penalties had given Ireland a nine-point lead. Brian O'Driscoll had crossed the line at the start of the second quarter, but Tommy Bowe's pass was ruled forward. It may have been, but it was straighter than Flood's short pass to Matt Banahan a few minutes earlier that had threatened the home defence and it was certainly flatter than Mark Cueto's feed to Tom Croft had been last Sunday for England's try against Scotland.

Such is the arbitrary nature of sport. Ireland had suffered in Cardiff when Matthew Rees was wrongly allowed to take a quick lineout but, while O'Driscoll quietly queried the decision after watching the replay on the big screen at the ground, his side's focus did not become blurred. England's perceived strength up front had already been neutralised with Mike Ross getting on top of Alex Corbisiero in the scrum and England initially had no answer to Ireland's tactics in the tackle when one player would go high, keeping an opponent on his feet and in a maul, while a second went for the ball. If a turnover was not won, the men in green had the put-in at a scrum.

Ireland's domination of possession and territory was rewarded when Sexton ran a penalty on England's 22, almost in front of the posts. He spotted Bowe to his left and the wing stepped inside Ben Foden and took Tom Wood over the line with him. It was a play England had used against Australia last November, upping the tempo and exploiting a fragmented defence; it was a big call by a player whose selection in the side had hardly won public acclaim.

Sexton tormented England until he was taken off with 11 minutes to go to a rapturous ovation. Unlike Flood, he mixed up his game, moving the ball when it was on and kicking deep into England's half when it was necessary. It was the pragmatism England will need if they are to turn progress into something more substantial and tangible. When Martin Johnson was congratulated afterwards by a Welsh questioner for being in charge of the one side prepared to play rugby this championship, he replied that playing rugby was not just about throwing the ball around: it also involved kicking to the corners and it meant mauling. Beauty and the beast.

England are in danger of becoming one-dimensional again, if in a different way: moving the ball rather than keeping it among the forwards before kicking it. Sexton had the element of surprise and England avoided a repeat of their 30-point defeat in Dublin in 2007 through their scrambling defence. James Haskell made three tackles in one movement after the excellent Jamie Heaslip, who played all evening as if he were Popeye overdosing on spinach, had prompted yet another turnover.

Ireland scored only two tries but it could have been eight. Their second came seven minutes after the restart. Keith Earls, Bowe and Wallace had already stretched England before the ball fell into the arms of the second-row Donncha O'Callaghan who should not have been cluttering up the midfield. His pass fell to ground 15 metres out and the ball was scooped up by O'Driscoll. The Ireland captain was facing his own posts but had the time to turn and run to the corner unopposed for his 25th try in the championship, a record.

England's hopes of the slam had gone, expectation dampened by more than the rain that had started falling. They had the consolation of scoring the final points of the match, the replacement hooker Steve Thompson intercepting Eoin Reddan's pass from a lineout, stripped of a clean sweep rather than their honour.

Johnson never pretended that his side bore comparison with the 2003 vintage and he, as captain then, knows better than anyone that success is born out of disappointments and Ireland showed the value of collective experience. England are worthy champions but what was different a year ago in Paris is now expected. They need to move on again.