Late England heroics can be lift-off for the Steve Borthwick era… it was their

• England clinched a famous 23-22 victory against Ireland in the Six Nations 
• Marcus Smith kicked a last-gasp drop goal to settle the contest at Twickenham 
• Ireland were on the cusp of retaining the title before the showstopping finish 

This is not only England’s best performance of the Six Nations by a country mile, it was by far their best performance of the Steve Borthwick era and the best they have produced in a long, long time – probably since their win over New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup semi-finals.

I wrote before the match that England had next to no chance of victory and that the game was about being competitive against what, in my view, is the best side in the world.

For England to come out with a win, they would have to play near on the perfect game. What is fascinating to me is that although England beat Ireland, I still think they can play even better. What a great position that is for the team to be in. They proved their doubters wrong.

Borthwick’s men can and must still bring greater impetus to their actions. But, there can be no doubt this Twickenham success against a side as good as Ireland is a massive step in the right direction for everyone in English rugby. I really hope this win represents lift-off for the Borthwick era.

England threw the kitchen sink at Andy Farrell’s men in a full-blooded contest and the way they won it through Marcus Smith’s drop goal was just brilliant.

It must not be downplayed how massive this win is for England. I was at Twickenham watching and it was a great day to be at the home of English rugby.

Winning back-to-back Grand Slams is not easy. Even winning one Grand Slam is far from straightforward, something I know about from my own coaching career.

This will hurt Ireland no end. It will take some coming back from, even if they do go on to win the title. Ahead of this game I wrote that to have any chance against Ireland, England simply had to play with a breakneck speed that would catch their opposition off guard.

They started well. I honestly believe that Borthwick’s players had read my pre-match column because they were so quickly out of the blocks.

They scored a nice try through Ollie Lawrence.

England’s first quarter showed they are improving. It was much better than we’ve seen in this Six Nations so far. England played well. I did wonder in the first 40 minutes if they had real belief they could win the game. But as the match progressed, that belief grew.

You could tell Ireland knew they were in a contest by the fact their head coach Farrell and Borthwick were involved in a tetchy conversation near the…