England head coach Eddie Jones was gracious in defeat after his side were beaten 13-9 by Ireland in the Aviva Stadium.
Jones’ men were second best on a day when they lost their chance to win a Grand Slam and set a new successive Test victory streak that would have eclipsed the record set by New Zealand last year.
A try by lock Iain Henderson after 23 minutes and eight off the boot of Johnny Sexton proved to be the difference, with Owen Farrell kicking all nine of England’s points.
Despite the disappointment of seeing his side’s winning run come to an end, Jones was happy at least to lift the Six Nations title.
"It’s a great result in terms of the Championship," he told RTÉ Sport. "We’re obviously disappointed today that we were beaten by a very good Ireland side.
"They played to the conditions well, they were absolutely superb and my hat’s off to Ireland.
"We just couldn’t get any momentum in the game which again is a great credit to Ireland, who played very well. They defended well, they were excellent around the ruck and their line-out ruck was superb.
"It was their day today and 100% congratulations to Ireland."
Jones was less forthcoming when questioned about some of the treatment that Sexton came in for as the Ireland fly-half was repeatedly targeted by England players and the victim of several late tackles.
"I’m sure the referee dealt with it. It was both ways," he said.
Looking to the future, Jones admitted that his next goal is to get England to the top of the IRB World Rankings and to win the 2019 World Cup.
"That’s our ambition, we want to win the World Cup. We never thought we could go to the World Cup in 2019 unbeaten, the reality of sport is that someone’s going to catch you on their day and that’s what happened today."
Eddie Jones reflects on losing the day but winning the Championship and moving forward to chasing a World Championship #rterugby pic.twitter.com/ZRYfytOTol
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) March 18, 2017
