Cipriani steers England home

Cipriani, dropped last week for his late-night visit to a Mayfair club, pulled on the number 10 shirt of Jonny Wilkinson and followed in the footsteps of the fly-half legend.

Seven goals from seven attempts, a haul of 18 points, was the sort of perfection for which Wilkinson was renowned.

But it was the manner in which 20-year-old Cipriani led England to the sort of structured and enterprising triumph which had been sadly lacking of late which was most impressive.

Tries from Paul Sackey, Mathew Tait and man-of-the-match Jamie Noon all gave the scoreline a comfortable look and Ashton even had the luxury of bringing on Wilkinson in the second half to a moon-rocket type roar from the Twickenham crowd.

It means England finish third in the Six Nations table, not exactly a triumph for the World Cup finalists of four months ago but at last they finished the campaign with hope and some style too.

For Ireland, defeat consigned them to fourth place and their worst championship finish since 1999.

It also cast serious doubt over the future of head coach Eddie O'Sullivan, who signed a four-year contract before a World Cup in which Ireland were one of the big disappointments.

More failure in this tournament was the last thing he needed.

But if his need was great then that of Ashton was perhaps even more acute.