Six Nations: Beaten England relying on help from Wales

For the fifth season in a row England look set to fall one match short of the clean sweep, but with home games against winless Scotland and an average France side to come, Lancaster feels the championship is still up for grabs.

Much depends on how Ireland fare in Cardiff against Wales in the next round, with Warren Gatland’s team now back in the title mix after a big win in Paris on Saturday.

But Joe Schmidt’s defending champions look the cream of the crop and a win at the Millennium Stadium will almost certainly ensure a second grand slam in seven seasons.

Inspired by Jonny Sexton, they controlled yesterday’s game throughout, with the 19-9 winning margin not doing their dominance justice.

For all the hype surrounding England after a strong start to the championship, their performance when the chips were down had a disconcerting familiarity about it.

Nevertheless, Lancaster said: “Absolutely we can still win the Six Nations. There are very few grand slam teams. In the majority of years you end up with a team winning the championship that has lost one game along the way.

“We have two games at home and it’s critical we get as much out of those as we can.

“Ireland have two games away and Wales are still in the hunt having won at the weekend. Wales against Ireland will be a big game, but we can’t control that.”

Sexton kicked Ireland into a 12-3 lead shortly after the interval as the hosts’ aerial game kept England penned in.

It was that supply line that created the game’s only try, Robbie Henshaw leaping above Alex Goode to claim Conor Murray’s arcing kick.

Sexton’s 100 per cent kicking ratio came to an end with a missed penalty, but it was the amount of chances they offered Ireland’s superb fly-half that frustrated England and Lancaster.

“A key point was our discipline in the first half,” said Lancaster. “I think it was an 8-4 penalty count at half-time.

“Ireland played a very effective kicking and territory-based game. If you’re ill-disciplined they can build the score.

“Some of those breakdown penalties we needed to make sure we didn’t commit because Jonny Sexton will just bang them over as he did in this case.

“We definitely stressed discipline before the game. Craig Joubert is a very good referee and very sharp at the breakdown and we certainly stressed that point. There were some things we needed to be better at.

“When you are playing against a side of the calibre of Ireland you know it will be an arm wrestle decided on small margins. In games like that experience counts and we lost the key moments.

“A lot of our lads haven’t played at that intensity. That’s Test rugby. I thought Ireland deserved it.

“Ireland played pretty much as we expected. They played a smart game. I think 44 kicks in open play tells a story. But it’s effective.

“There are different ways to skin a cat and win a game of rugby.

“I thought we defended their set plays well and our scrum got more dominant as the game went on. But the damage was done when they scored their try.”

Lancaster also had to defend his decision to leave Danny Cipriani on the bench as England lacked spark with George Ford unable to impose himself.

Contrastingly, Schmidt was able to bask in the glow of what he said beforehand would be a “treasured” victory as Ireland won for the 10th match in a row.

“I think we’ve decided we’ll park everything for 24 hours, get a bit of recovery and then try to springboard ourselves forward,” said Schmidt.

“At this stage, probably for once we’re going to just enjoy the moment and take a deep breath.”

On the quest for the title, he added: “Even our points-differential is very much aided by the 10-point swing (yesterday), because it’s a 20-point swing with England, which is potentially important because they’ve got two home games and could accumulate a few points.

“They could put a bit of pressure on in that perspective if we do slip up in either of the next two games.

“And it’s going to be very hard in the Millennium.

“The last time Wales won the Championship they lost their first game at home and went through to win the tournament.”

Match report: Page 5.