Joe Schmidt's side suffered their second defeat in a row as they were beaten by an impressive England at Twickenham.
After last week's disappointing loss to the Welsh Ireland would have been hoping to bounce back against our neighbours but that wasn't the case.
England stormed into an early lead with a dangerous looking attack that was finished off by Johnny May. The English winger picked the ball up on the wing and from a standing start drove through Tommy Bowe and a got over the line even with a last ditch tackle from Simon Zebo not enough to stop the Gloucester back.
Sexton responded with a penalty for Ireland but soon after England got their second try of the game. Anthony Watson this time with the score and a fantastic one at that. A perfectly weighted cross field kick from George Ford put Zebo up against Watson in the air and the Munster man misjudged the flight and Watson got in to open up a nine-point lead.
The game could have been over at half time as Johnny May got in again but the final pass was judged to have been forward. Ireland were very lucky as England attack were causing numerous problems especially down May's wing. Ireland Went in at half time only trailing by nine with the performance of Dave Kearney one of the few positives.
Ireland were better in the second half and hit a purple patch with Sexton converting a penalty. Ireland soon found themselves trailing only by 2 as from a line out Paul O' Connell bulldozed his way over the line.
England had a try ruled out for the second time as Owen Farrell came up short. England needn't have worried however as Farrell scored two penalties to put the result beyond the reach of Ireland.
A poor performance from the boys in green. Lacking any attacking fluidity but what would worry Schmidt the most would be the amount of missed tackles. Ireland will get their World Cup campaign underway against Canada in two weeks.
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