I thought we made a good start at Twickenham - there was a great deal of purpose to our play with Ronan O'Gara proving to be highly influential. Sadly we couldn't maintain that and we spent long periods of the first half without the ball and kicked away the possession we did have.

Ireland were still in the game at the break but their defence crumbled and disintegrated. When a side is low on confidence it can manifest itself in the attitude to defence and that appeared to be the case.

England played well and took their tries well as they soundly defeated Ireland. I thought Danny Cipriani had a fine game at fly-half and I was impressed with his willingness to be vocal and tell his pack what he wanted.

A few people commented that the older heads in the pack would not want a 20-year-old bossing them around but as a forward that is exactly what you want. The fact that he led the team-talk when the players came out just shows what confidence he has and that he knows what he wants.

He learnt a harsh lesson last week even though I am not sure it was handled correctly by Brian Ashton.

Naturally, the media have gone overboard; they need to remember he is young and he will have days when he play poorly, but it was an excellent start to an international career at 10.

As for the tournament as a whole, I particularly enjoyed the fact that it is no longer a two-tier tournament as any team can beat another on any day - and that happened frequently.

Wales were the best side in the tournament and I am glad they beat France to the title as I felt Marc Lievremont's decision to use this great, historic championship as a breeding ground for young players to be totally disrespectful. Wales are now a happy side and as a result they have been a pleasure to watch.

I thought the outstanding players this year were Shane Williams, Sergio Parisse and Vincent Clerc. They were fabulously exciting to watch but a mention must go to Ryan Jones, who, leading his country for the first time, was phenomenal and deserved to lift the trophy.