“Initially, it’s disappointing to see a game go away from you in a second-half,” said the Ireland boss. “As we pick through the bones of it, there were questions asked of an English team that have not been asked of them recently. “We got them under pressure. They’ve had to go back into the dressing-room and re-discover how they play the game because we had them under pressure.” Ireland discovered how just a split second’s hesitation or the smallest of errors could be punished ruthlessly by a side that is heavily favoured to win the World Cup on home soil towards the back end of the summer. This was England’s 32nd straight win in this tournament. Still, this was undoubted progress for an Ireland side that is clearly improving. Go back a year and they were shipping twice as many tries in an 88-10 defeat at Twickenham. The graph is clearly shooting in the right direction. “It’s a step forward from where we were a year ago,” said Bemand. “But there’s more to come. I said to the players at the end, this isn’t the end of the Six Nations. There’s two massive games to come. “So what we have to do is to take the learnings from this really, really quickly. And not to get too down on it, keep your heads up high, understand what you did well and what worked well earlier in the game. Because there are two away games we need to go and win.” Costigan, Ireland’s captain, gave the record Virgin Media Park crowd the moment they all wanted so badly with that 25th-minute try on the back of what had been a hugely encouraging first quarter. “This is a special place and I’m a Munster woman,” she said after. “I can feel that energy out there in that crowd but once our forwards put in the strong carries and Dannah [O’Brien] puts it up there, honestly, I’m just running on to a ball and touching it down. “I have no ownership over it. Touching the ball down is the easiest job in rugby. But I felt the energy from the crowd once I scored, the cheers. It’s about bringing joy, that’s what sport is. It’s about bringing joy to people’s lives and I’m glad I could do that for the few moments.” ENDS -- Brendan O'Brien Assistant Sports Editor and Sports Writer Irish Examiner (Dublin Office) Mob: 00353-86-606-1386 Twitter: @byBrendanOBrien