After being red carded in the World Cup semi-final against France, Warburton was again left helpless when a dead leg ruled kept him sidelined during the second half.

And he was forced to watch his troops regain the lead only to lose it again heading into the final stages.

But after taking the kicking tee from Rhys Priestland, Leigh Halfpenny made himself the hero with a last-gasp penalty to make amends for his miss in the World Cup semi-final against France, to the delight of his Blues teammate Warburton.

He said: “I see Leigh after training for ages out on the pitch and he bangs them over all day long but it’s a bit different when you have 50,000 Irishmen against you.

“But he deserves that because I knew he was gutted about the [2011 World Cup] semi-final miss.

 “Sitting on the sidelines knowing you can’t do anything was a disappointing. It was agonising but I’m delighted with the players.

 “I thought we were really smart in the second half, even with a player down you saw the backs putting the ball in place to get our big guys involved to carry the ball forward.

“People like George [North] came in, Jamie [Roberts] ran hard and it made a massive difference in the second half and I thought we showed a lot of maturity especially with a man down.”