It was the first time Sir Clive Woodward's side had lost at English rugby's HQ in 23 outings and has opened up this season's RBS 6 Nations.

Girvan Dempsey's 50th-minute try proved decisive and star man O'Driscoll was delighted to have beaten the world champions on their own patch.

"The belief was the big thing," he told BBC1. "There were a few hairy, scary moments in the second half but I'm so delighted to come through - this is a fantastic result for us."

England captain Lawrence Dallaglio felt his side had not played to their usual standard but credited Ireland for an excellent display.

"I don't think we can have any complaints. If you don't win set-piece ball at this level then you will struggle," he said.

"We were very poor in the lineout and we didn't stand a chance of getting good position.

"They disrupted our lineout and if you make as many errors as we did you are going to make life very difficult for yourself. We crossed the line a few times and didn't touch the ball down.

"We had a very poor first half and a marginally better second half. These are not the standards we expect from this team, but credit to Ireland, they came here with the belief that they could get into us and they deserved their victory."

His predecessor as England skipper Martin Johnson added: "England made too many mistakes and when Ireland played with the ball they looked like scoring. You have to hold your hands up and say they deserved to win."