Star centre plays a real lion of a game

Something of England's warrior nature reappeared on a weekend of Celtic glory, but there was never enough.

Indeed, if they were entirely honest with themselves, England might agree that not much short of an entire armoured division was guaranteed to halt their slide to a fourth straight defeat and their worst run for 18 years.

Their huge problem was maybe the best player in the world, certainly the best in these islands. Ireland's captain Brian O'Driscoll was the difference and he was, to be brutally honest, something England have never had.

O'Driscoll has a pure, overwhelming instinct to play rugby in the most expressive and biting way. His try, after an exquisite dummy by his team-mate Geordan Murphy, was improbably magnificent, the product of astonishing hand-eye coordination and feet which, if they were perhaps more delicately formed, might have passed muster at the Bolshoi.

But there was more to Ireland than O'Driscoll, and so much more to the Irish captain than that supreme moment of individual flair. There was that ability to reach out beyond the normal bounds of performance, to conjure something unexpected, something to overwhelm England.

Ireland now go forward for collisions with the French and the resurrected Welsh and these are prospects to thrill any rugby aficionado.

They are also a magnificent rebuke to that doomsday talk of a Six Nations tournament which had lost its competitive base. The English juggernaut, with its vast player pool and its superb organisation, would roll on, squeezing the life out of the quixotic French and the downtrodden Welsh and Irish.

That presumption, weakened by defeats in Cardiff and at home to the French at Twickenham, was formally put to the sword in Dublin.

Later, there was a poignant image down on the otherwise empty field as Andy Robinson, the England coach, spoke on a mobile phone and from time to time looked up at the darkening sky, Dublin's and his own.

His misery will no doubt be compounded this week by growing pressure on his job, but the reality is that England did not play badly in Dublin.

Sir Clive Woodward, who led England to the world crown after years of trial and error, was in the stadium and could only reflect on how quickly sport can break down any belief in the inevitability of success.

Here was evidence of this reality that was utterly unimaginable two years ago, when the captain Martin Johnson six times sent Irish Rugby Union officials on their way when they pleaded for him to move his team a few yards down the field to accommodate the presentation of the teams to the president, Mary McAleese.

Yesterday was the day when O'Driscoll rose and brought his rugby nation with him. He served both his country and his game with a level of performance which took the bitterness out of the wind and brought instead the warmth of pure celebration.

Woodward's next challenge is to lead the British Lions, one which will be somewhat simplified when he reaches the important decision on who will lead the team.

Two weeks ago the coach had a private discussion with O'Driscoll. The word is that the coach pointed out that diplomacy was a key part of the job, and that in the past O'Driscoll had been a little too volatile for that.

Later, the Irish captain said it had gone well. Yesterday you could say more than that. Yesterday you had to believe he had made the job his own.

- INDEPENDENT