One of the great Twickenham test matches unfolded on front of the eyes of Six Nations fans on Saturday afternoon as England lost 15-32 having played for 79 minutes with 14 men.
Charlie Ewels was sent off after 82 seconds with the Bath man deemed to have made a dangerous tackle on James Ryan before Ryan's Leinster teammate scored a try which looked like it may be the start of a long afternoon for England.
However, the hosts rallied, and a raucous Twickenham crowd drove England on as they rallied back through a brilliant set-piece display, forcing a number of penalties to bring them back to 15-15 with an hour on the clock.
Bristol-bound Ellis Genge was particularly dominant in the scrum against Tadgh Furlong with Maro Itoje also at his brilliant best but it was not enough as Ireland drew clear in the closing quarter.
World Cup winner Lawrence Dallaglio in commentary described Eddie Jones' men as 'heroic' with the scoreline perhaps flattering Ireland after two late tries against an exhausted England defence from Jack Conan Finlay Bealham secured the bonus point for Ireland.
It was Ireland's highest ever win at Twickenham and will play for the Championship next weekend with a win the only option to topple France, who play England knowing that a win will secure the Grand Slam.
Ireland will be relying on the Red Rose for a favour next weekend and ahead of a trip to France and captain Courtney Lawes spoke positively after the match.
England's stand in captain said on ITV after the match: "We showed today how much it means to be part of this team. We didn't give up for a second.
"We knew it was going to be tough from minute two. We were pretty tired towards the end. Class effort from the boys. I couldn't ask for anything more from them.
"We were excited for the challenge. As soon as the red card went up the energy went up.
"We wanted to make it right for Ewels. We couldn't do that but the effort was there and that's all we could ask for.
"Props to Genge and Sinckler. They did an unbelievable job today. We've got a great pack. We wanted to bully them up front and for the vast majority of the game we did that."
