The hosts triumphed 27-18 to avoid the wooden spoon and end Englands faint hopes of winning the championship.

Ashton hailed the character of his young side after they were outplayed in the opening period, and believes the experience will benefit them in the long run.

After that first 20 minutes, when we had been blown away, the players showed a lot of resilience and got back into a situation which was drifting away from us, said Ashton. At half-time it was game on.

Wales managed the game a little better than we did. But it will serve the young players well for the future.

They need to go through experiences like that. They will be first to admit the game was not managed as well as it could have been. But they can hold their heads up high.

Ashton's first Six Nations campaign contained three home wins - over Scotland, Italy and France - but away defeats in Ireland and Wales.

It has been an interesting Six Nations. We hoped to win all our home games which we did," he said.

"We hoped to sneak one of the away games. We didn't manage it but got a lot closer today than at Croke Park and showed in flashes we can test opponents.

With my old school master's hat on I would say the campaign was satisfactory but can be improved.