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Ireland's stunning victory over England stemmed from the fact that they got off to the start they had always wished for. As opposed to the French game where they were always chasing the game Ireland were always in the driving seat, apart from the early Wilkinson penalty.
I suppose the English would have felt like Ireland did in the French match after the first half, in that Ireland probably played all the rugby and England just couldn't get started.
Apart from a purple patch in the second half, everything that England did Ronan O'Gara managed to neutralise. England didn't fire a shot and apart from the 20 minute purple patch Ireland were just dominant in all areas of the ground.
The scrum was good, the lineout was good, loose forward play was excellent, the backs were excellent. England didn't score a tick on any aspect of the game.
Brian Ashton talked about having to get the set-pieces right if they were to have a chance of beating Ireland, but the hosts completely dominated the set-pieces which didn't allow England any go-forward ball.
It's easy for out-halves to get the accolades when a team wins and to get the blame when a team loses but Ronan O'Gara had another instrumental game in the green jersey.
O'Gara's out of hand kicking was excellent, his goal kicking was Wilkinson-like so that kept them ticking over.
At one stage when England had faint hopes of some sort of revival after scoring their try and Johnny Wilkinson had just missed a kick that dropped on to the bar.
However, Ireland went down the other end and O'Gara found Horgan with an inch-perfect kick for his try and then kept slotting over the conversions to give the rest of the Irish team a lot of confidence.
It might be a stupid thing to say but seven points as opposed to five, with a conversion every time, makes a huge difference once you start getting a few tries. It's 14 points versus ten and it makes a significant difference on the scoreboard.
But I think every one played their part in the victory. David Wallace was magnificent and Paul O'Connell was singled out as Man of the Match. I suppose it could have gone to O'Gara, but my Man of the Match was David Wallace.
I think the Munsterman proved that England didn't have a player to match him and he has definitely been the outstanding performer in the tournament so far.
There's a rotation system in the French team so it would be hard to pick out any one player who has been outstanding for them because they move them around.
Sentiment might dictate that Troncon would be close but Wallace, of the big boys, is the leading player. If he carries on in the same vein for the remaining two games he will be named the Player of the Tournament.
Despite the emphatic manner of the record 30 point victory, the respect shown by the amazing Croke Park crowd throughout the match meant the most to me.
I've had about five radio stations on from New Zealand enquiring about the memorable events at GAA HQ.
People don't realise the advertising that this would have done for Irish rugby but I know there's a large ex-pat Irish community, both in Australia and New Zealand, and the word coming out from those countries is that it was a brilliant advertisement, not just for Irish rugby but for Ireland as a whole.
The stadium, the crowd, the respect that the English were given when they came out first of all and of course the anthems went a long way around the world to putting Ireland on the map as far as sportsmanship is concerned.
Even the talk out in New Zealand was that this was a marvellous occasion and that it was well respected. There was no trouble, not a banner in sight, not a boo to be heard and I think that made it.
Even for me it was emotional. As a one-off rugby occasion, I believe it has only ever been surpassed by the South African World Cup win in 1995.
That will be remembered for the Nelson Mandela factor and that the host nation's success unified a whole country, in a similar sense to the way events at Croke Park did on Saturday.
It will rightly go down as one of the great Irish sporting occasions and it was a privilege to be there to witness it.
Johnny Wilkinson has come out and said that Ireland are now one of the top three ranking teams in the world and this is something I have been saying for a long time.
I think the pecking order now would be the All Blacks, France/Ireland two or three and Australia/South Africa behind them.
I was speaking to Eddie O'Sullivan on Monday and I told him the word coming out of New Zealand is that they are quite worried about the prospect of facing Ireland should they meet in the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
They, like many observers, think that's the way it's going to go. Logic suggests that Ireland should find it hard against the hosts France in Paris and New Zealand know that in a one-off game anything could happen.
The way Ireland are playing they will be a test for any side and if they got an early try and O'Gara knocks over a few penalties, then suddenly New Zealand are chasing the game.
Ireland have proved that their defence is good, they've got the best centres in the world, one of the best out-halves in the world, and to be honest you wouldn't replace any of that back line for anyone else in the world.
Brent Pope was talking to Shane Murray
