Ireland coach Declan Kidney insists beating England at Twickenham is comparable to winning the RBS 6 Nations Grand Slam last year.
Tommy Bowe’s late try, his second of the match, handed Ireland a 20-16 victory after Jonny Wilkinson had put England ahead for the first time with a drop goal.
And after the hard fought win, in which Ireland made an astonishing 99 tackles, Kidney praised his side for bouncing back following their defeat to France two weeks ago.
He said: “I’m hugely proud, I’ve got the same feeling we had at the end of last year’s championship.
“We can be hard on ourselves and we’re lacking a bit of belief – I’m not sure why, but we responded better.
“The difference between today and Paris was we took our opportunities today.”
“I think both teams were looking to respond,” he said.
“I don’t think England were happy after the Italy game and lots of questions were asked of us after the France game.”
Kidney reserved special praise for his side’s defence that, with the exception of Dan Cole’s try, restricted England’s attacking opportunities.
“Conditions were not suited to running rugby, especially in the first half, but our defence held firm and apart from that try they scored our defence was fairly comfortable,” he added.
“England are such a tough team to play against, it doesn’t matter whether they’re on top of the world or not doing so well, they’re an incredibly physical side to play against.”
