England's Grand Slam hopes are in the gutter for yet another year, but I don't feel there is a need to panic. All the good work they did in the first two matches - and yes there were areas they needed to improve on back then - does not go out of the window but they will learn from the defeat.

England had opportunities to get front-foot ball against Wales and Italy but they did not enjoy nearly as much against Ireland. Instead they found themselves rushed with ball-carriers isolated. There was the moment in the first half when Luther Burrell found himself on his own 22 with the potential for an overlap outside him but he was smashed before he had the chance to get the pass away. You cannot dwell at this level.

Chris Robshaw's side were punished up front by a well-drilled Ireland team © Getty Images

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We talked of execution and discipline but England set the scene right from the beginning when they gave away a silly penalty in the first hits of the match. To be the best in the world, you have to stop offering these three-point presents to the opposition. When you have a referee who is getting hot on the offside lines, as Craig Joubert was on Sunday, then you must use more self-control to stop giving him the chance to blow his whistle. Once that gets in his head, it's hard to change that as the game goes on.

Stuart Lancaster is a man who strikes me as being one who controls his emotions but even he must have muttered some sort of profanity when he saw his team make another poor start to the game. At the moment, ill-discipline is killing England. They must improve that as they were letting themselves down on the small details.

What will have annoyed them was the refereeing of the scrums by Joubert. I thought he had a poor game and the Irish scrum pulled the wool over his eyes. Ireland stalled a little bit at the scrum and when Joubert was pinging England for an early push when the scrum-half had already presented the ball, that was just poor officiating.

I remember when we played our matches against Australia and we used to have to tweak our technique for their front-row. George Gregan at scrum-half used to control the scrum as he used to put the ball down, then take it up and then the Wallabies put in a soft hit in the scrum. We had to de-power ourselves to make it a contest - it is totally wrong but we had to do that. It comes from experience and the England front-row will learn from Dublin.

Ireland played the breakdown better and they were sharper and more physical there. They had more intensity and Tommy O'Donnell and Sean O'Brien looked to have more urgency than the England back-row. When you are losing that battle then it's so hard to get a foothold in the match.

England were not at their best which conversely might give them some reason for comfort as I still believe on their day they can beat Ireland. You cannot fault the players' efforts but after the triumph against Wales, we have to remember they are still gelling as a unit. They can take heart from their conditioning as I believe they are fitter than anyone else in the Six Nations. If they learn to play on the edge, without going over the edge, it will help them close out these sorts of games.

For Ireland, Jonathan Sexton was fantastic and fits their strategic gameplan perfectly. At times it isn't pretty but it's all about winning games and that's all that matters. They are now in the driving seat for the Grand Slam and their gameplan is so effective that you feel they will win their final two matches.

If they slip up then England will be there waiting. Up next for them are Scotland who took a massive step backwards against Italy. They had Italy on a plate at various moments in the match but failed to see them off. For all the talk of the improvements they have made so far under Vern Cotter, whatever they learned seems to have gone out of the window.

We talk of England and Scotland still developing as sides but Lancaster's men are way ahead in their evolution. They will win at Twickenham in a fortnight's time but I think the trophy could end up in Dublin again.