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Johnson left frustrated by referee Lawrence

Martin Johnson's side lost 20-16 to Ireland © Getty Images

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England 16 - 20 Ireland

England manager Martin Johnson is set to demand an explanation from South African referee Mark Lawrence for the "huge call" that arguably signalled the end of his side's bid for a Six Nations Grand Slam.

Ireland claimed a hard-fought 20-16 over England at Twickenham courtesy of Tommy Bowe's second try of the match, just minutes after Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal had nudged England ahead for the first time. The hosts still had time to mount a response and did so with a well-organised and powerful driving maul which carried them to within five metres of Ireland's try-line.

But when Ireland finally halted the drive, both England's players and management were stunned to discover that referee Lawrence had not awarded them the put-in at the scrum for not releasing.

"I thought we were going to score at the end. When you have gone 25 yards and they have tried to collapse it three times already, it is a huge call to give Ireland the scrum," said Johnson. "I don't know why we didn't get the put-in. If they are taking guys out of the maul illegally - even if they don't actually collapse it - it is still a penalty, it has a material effect. Maybe Mark has got a reason, I will talk to him. I don't want to labour the point because we lost the game but it was a penalty to us before it even got to that point."

England were also disappointed by a pivotal decision early in the second half - to reverse a penalty against Tomas O'Leary - which led directly to Ireland's second try for Keith Earls. England won a penalty at the scrum but Danny Care flipped O'Leary onto his back as he tried to wrestle the ball from his opposite number and the decision was reversed on the advice of assistant referee Christophe Berdos.

Ireland kicked for touch, won the line-out, pitched camp in midfield and Jonathan Sexton fired a pass wide left for Earls to score in the corner. "Games turn on things like that. It was silly but I don't think it was a penalty," said Johnson.

In spite of his grumbles at the officials, Johnson acknowledged England did not do enough with their mountains of possession and territory to earn the victory. England spent 60% of the game with the ball. Ireland had to make 99 tackles to England's 30 and conceded 14 penalties - a combination of statistics which usually make it impossible to win a Test match.

"I am not into saying we deserved to win or anything like that because you get what you deserve in this game - but it was in our grasp," he said. "When you are ahead with six minutes to go you need to finish the game off.

"I thought the effort and the character was fantastic. The guys will be upset with themselves. We got ahead with six minutes to go and it was disappointing to concede that try at the end. This is a tough loss to take.

"I said to the players they have to keep that horrible feeling inside of them for two weeks and release it at Murrayfield. We come back to play Scotland, who will be playing that game to save their championship (after being beaten by Italy). Now it comes down to determination and aggressiveness that the players will need to play Scotland."

Reflecting on the match, No.9 Care labelled the as one of the most disappointing of his career. "This wasn't a game I needed to get fired up for," he said. "It was probably one of the biggest games of my career so far - at home to Ireland in the Six Nations - and so losing makes it one of the biggest disappointments.

"It is just so frustrating. We probably played the best rugby over 80 minutes and to get three points ahead with a few minutes to go, we thought we could hold out. But Ireland turned us over and they showed the quality they have in their side, they had one chance and they took it to snatch what was a big victory for them. We were two from two and would have loved to make it three from three. By no means are we out of the competition yet and hopefully we will come back for the Scotland game firing."

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