Only minutes earlier, England had completed a stirring comeback from 13-6 down to take the lead with a Jonny Wilkinson drop goal.

England manager Martin Johnson urged his men to bottle the “horrible” feeling of defeat and unleash it at Murrayfield on March 13.

Care said: “That 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.

“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.”

Murrayfield has not always been a happy hunting ground for England teams and Scotland will be spitting tacks after losing to Italy in Rome.

Johnson also knows emotion alone will not be enough. England were again guilty of failing to take their chances despite enjoying a mountain of possession.

By way of highlighting England’s deficiencies, Ireland scored three expertly-taken tries. Bowe opened the scoring after four minutes and Keith Earls dived in for the second.

England centre Riki Flutey admitted England must sharpen their cutting edge before facing a Scotland side who produced an heroic defensive effort to beat Australia last autumn.

“Ireland took their opportunities in our 22 and that is an area we have to look at in our own game, scanning the defensive line and looking for openings not ball-watching,” said Flutey.

“We also need to work on our first-phase defence because giving away easy points (in Bowe’s second try) is unacceptable.”