The better side won, said Woodward. We are bitterly disappointed with the way that we played, but you have got to hold your hand up.

You can take losing, but when you play so badly, it makes it even harder.

I am in charge so I take responsibility. We've lost, we've had a bad day, but I am not going to over-react to this.

Unless we got the ball, we knew it would be hard. We didn't have a good day and Ireland deserved to win.

England's problems were highlighted at the lineout, were hooker Steven Thompson suffered a nightmare with his throwing-in, and was substituted before the midway point of the second half.

All credit to Ireland, they totally dominated us, said England forwards coach Andy Robinson.

We had no momentum from the lineouts, I take full responsibility for that, and I am not going to pass the buck.

England's defeat was their first in 11 matches and Woodward added: We played badly in every area. Ireland deserved to win, they played very well, and we played very poorly.

But we have got to move forward from this. You hate losing, but you have just got to cop it, and we can put a line under the World Cup now.

I don't think there was any complacency - we lost to a better team on the day. We don't like losing, but we have always got better after losing a game, and this is still a great team of people.