By Brendan O’Brien

Ireland's ambitions of retaining their Six Nations title and - whisper it - claiming a second Grand Slam in seven seasons are very much alive after a deserved ten-point victory against a previously undefeated England side in Dublin on Sunday afternoon.

Joe Schmidt’s side travel to Cardiff to face Wales in a fortnight’s time and then take on Scotland in Edinburgh a week later after a try from Robbie Henshaw and 14 points from the boot of Jonathan Sexton overcame the English.

The main concern now for Schmidt – aside from the rapidly escalating hype - is the fitness and well-being of Sexton, Sean O’Brien and Jared Payne, all of whom appeared to be withdrawn with injuries before the end.

England started slowly in their first two games, against Wales and Italy, and were caught on the back foot again on this occasion with Ireland turning them over on 33 seconds and claiming a penalty after 53 when a visiting player failed to roll away.

Sexton duly slotted the kick.

Another followed within seven minutes, but Ireland could be forgiven for cursing their lot given Rory Best had been held up over the try line four phases after a scrum borne of Sexton’s cross kick which England fielded in their own dead ball area.

So far, so good for Ireland, but nobody expected the traffic to continue in just the one direction all afternoon and, sure enough, England dusted themselves off and worked their way up the field in reply.

An initial break up Ireland’s right flank gained prodigious yardage and brought play into the home 22 and England out-half George Ford had the benefit of a penalty advantage as he slotted over a successful drop goal.

Ford skewed a penalty wide from the halfway line soon after as England enjoyed the lion’s share of territory and possession for a spell midway through the first-half, but Ireland survived the siege due in the main to two stolen English lineouts.

It was the second of those that led to Sean O’Brien barreling towards a glut of English defenders, but the crowd’s cheers turned to groans when the Leinster favourite stumbled over on attempting to recover his feet.

Dr Eanna Falvey showed a fleet turn of foot to reach the stricken flanker as he sought to return to the line, grabbing at the considerable weight of the Tullow man who reluctantly took a knee before being shepherded off.

And still the hits kept on coming.

Sexton was the subject of considerable concern two weeks ago on his own return from conclusion after a 12-week stand down, but he was the enforcer a couple of times here, no more so than when flooring Burrell with a brute of a hit.

That one came with a bonus when the Northampton Saints centre failed to release and the Irish out-half profited with his third penalty of the afternoon to make it 9-3 with ten minutes to go to the break.

Ireland again sought to turn the screw on the restart when only the magical feet of English full-back Alex Goode, who evaded three tackles over his own dead ball line after a Murray break and Henshaw kick forward, kept England from early suffocation.

Then again, the margin was soon nine points after Sexton penalised Chris Robshaw for blatantly joining a ruck from the side and the win was all but assured after 52 minutes when Robbie Henshaw pounced for the first try.

The Connacht centre had finished the first period with a pronounced limp but showed no ill effects in leaping high above Goode to claim a Murray box kick in the corner in scenes reminiscent of Shane Horgan’s ‘Gaelic catch’ in Croke Park in 2007.

Sexton converted from the touchline to leave Ireland 19-3 to the good, but it was his last meaningful contribution as he was replaced by Ian Madigan with 26 minutes still to play with what would appear to be an injury but one that was not immediately confirmed.

His controlling influence was missed as Ireland made a handful of individual errors starting with the concession of a penalty at a scrum which cost three points kicked by Ford who then claimed his third penalty with a dozen minutes to go.

By now, the game was beginning to resemble that of the French match here two weeks ago when Ireland failed to press home an obvious advantage in the final quarter, but held out to claim the win vital to their hopes of retaining the title.

And so it came to pass again.

Three played, three won. Hard to argue with that.

Ireland: R Kearney; T Bowe, J Payne, R Henshaw, S Zebo; J Sexton, C Murray; J McGrath, R Best, M Ross; D Toner, P O’Connell; P O’Mahony, S O’Brien, J Murphy. Replacements: T O’Donnell for O’Brien (25); I Madigan for Sexton (54); M Moore for Ross (58); C Healy for McGrath (60); I Henderson for Toner (65); F Jones for Payne (71); S Cronin for Best (74).

England: A Goode; A Watson, J Joseph, L Burrell, J Nowell; G Ford, B Youngs; J Marler, D Hartley, D Cole; D Attwood, G Kruis; J Haskell, C To shaw, B Vunipola. Replacements: T Youngs for Hartley (53); T Croft for Haskell (62); M Vunipola for Marler (65); N Easter for Attwood (66); R Wigglesworth for Youngs and B Twelvetrees for Joseph (both 68).

Referee: C Joubert (South Africa).