Six Nations 2015: England can still win title - Stuart Lancaster

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Media caption,

Dominant Ireland derail England

England coach Stuart Lancaster remains hopeful his side can still win the Six Nations title despite defeat by Ireland ending their Grand Slam hopes.

Ireland won 19-9 in Dublin to stay on course for a Grand Slam, with trips to Wales and Scotland still to come.

England must hope they win their remaining matches at home to Scotland and France, and that Ireland slip up.

"Absolutely we can still win the Six Nations. There are very few Grand Slam teams," Lancaster said.

"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.

Media caption,

Six Nations 2015: Paul O'Connell praises Irish discipline

"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."

Ireland were comprehensive winners at the Aviva Stadium, capitalising on a succession of England errors through the boot of Jonny Sexton and scoring the only try when Robbie Henshaw touched down.

England captain Chris Robshaw said: "We're very disappointed. We didn't get the result we wanted. Credit to the Irish, but we gave them their points too easily. At times we matched them, but the penalty count is an area for us to work on this week."

Lancaster also felt his side's carelessness had let Ireland take charge of the contest, saying: "A key point was our discipline in the first half. 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.

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

Sir Clive Woodward, former England coach

"I hope England don't change the team too much because they're going in the right direction, but they'll have learned a lesson today. If you give away 13 penalties at this level you're going to get beaten."

Asked why he left fly-half Danny Cipriani on the bench despite chasing the game in the closing minutes, Lancaster said: "I was thinking about bringing Danny on but there comes a point when you are making substitutions through the team and you feel you don't want to make too many.

"It's not a reflection on our trust in Danny at all. He's a quality player but we'd already made changes in the second row, at six, nine and 12. I thought the guys who came on did well."

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Fly-half Sexton was the key figure in the match as he kicked 14 of Ireland's points

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

England wing Nowell went close to scoring a late try but it was disallowed

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