Andy Farrell not throwing towel in on Ireland's Six Nations Championship title hopes

Ireland certainly looked far from a potential Championship winning side for the most of the third round game in London, dominated for the most of the game in all facets of the game.

The Irish arrived at the home of the RFU on the back of two wins and were seeking a second Triple Crown in three seasons against the English - as well as looking to set up a potential Grand Slam clash with France in Paris in three weeks time.

But they were blown away by the English in the front 40 and trailed 17-0 at the break after George North and Elliot Daly capitalised on sloppy errors from Jonathan Sexton and Jacob Stockdale.

Owen Farrell kicked both conversions and a penalty during a first half where the Irish hardly fired a shot.

Ireland offered some resistance in the second half when Robbie Henshaw crossed for an early try, but any resurgence was quickly halted by an English side showing some of the class which saw them defeat New Zealand en route to a World Cup final loss to South Africa.

Luke Cowan-Dickie’s try and Farrell’s conversion ended the game as a contest and although Andrew Porter crossed for a try converted by fellow replacement John Cooney, it merely gave a flattering look to the end scoreline.

France remain on track to win a first championship in a decade and complete a Grand Slam, sitting four points clear of both England and Ireland, the latter in third place on points difference.

The result in Twickenham did open up the Championship race with Ireland still to have a large say in its destination facing France in the final round five game after they welcome Italy to Dublin in a fortnight’s time.

Farrell, not hiding his disappointment and lamenting a poor performance from his side, remained defiant that in spite of the poor showing believed they could still win a championship.

Farrell insisted the problems they encountered were England specific and believes they can regain momentum once more after the successive wins over Scotland and Wales..

“We are in the same position as a few other teams and we need to be disappointed with this, and we are.

“Some might say the scoreline flattered us, but at the end of the day it is a 12-point margin, we could have rolled over against a side that were desperate today in England, but we didn’t and we gave ourselves as good a chance as any.

“We will take the learnings from the loss and the hurt as well. We will take the disappointment and again we need to make sure we get it to the last weekend.

Farrell had resisted making changes (unless forced due to injury) to some positions within the squad in the lead-up to the Championship start four weeks ago.

He may have had a mind to change things a little ahead of the Italy game irrespective of the result in Twickenham, but this may afford him the opportunity and licence to make those changes.

Certainly scrumhalf John Cooney is chomping at the bit for a start, while there are back row and front row options to look at.

“Obviously we have always had that food for thought in the back of our minds anyway (in respect of making changes),” said Farrell.

“We will assess it rationally and make sure we will do right by the team and do what we have to, to get the right performance against Italy.”

Ireland’s final opponents France have been on fire but Farrell would not be drawn on if this was the best Les Bleus he has seen in recent years.

“There will be ups and downs in their competition as well, we just have to make sure that when we go that we try and not allow France to play the game they want to play, but first things first let’s make sure we have got the right attitude, right intent and right want to get the result we need against Italy,” he added.