Clinical finishing from two-try hero Tommy Bowe and some resilient defending were the cornerstones behind the victory but England did go ahead with less than ten minutes to go through a Jonny Wilkinson drop-goal.

Ireland ran out 20-16 victors and Johnson said: “We didn’t help ourselves - when you get ahead you need to stay there, the game turns on those things.

“It was good play from them and not good defence from us.”

After mounting criticism for the lacklustre nature of England’s style, Johnson surprisingly said that he felt they might have been a little too ambitious at times.

He said: “At times we tried to play too much and got turned over. Maybe we should have pegged them back and put them under pressure.

"It comes back to the same old things - if you take chances and score tries you’ll probably end up winning.”

The result leaves the Championship at the mercy of France who remain the only unbeaten side.