Coach Brian Ashton predictably played down the impact of Danny Cipriani in England's 33-10 victory over Ireland on Saturday, instead praising an all-round team performance he described as their best of the tournament.

Cipriani, in his first start, delivered an assured, all-round display at flyhalf, landing all seven of his goalkicks with four penalties and conversions of tries by Paul Sackey, Mathew Tait and Jamie Noon.

But Ashton, who brought in the 20-year-old for Jonny Wilkinson, told a news conference: "The team played exceptionally well, it was a team performance not a one-man band. Rugby when it's played at that level never is."

However, pressed to assess the impact of a man he dropped from the squad before the Scotland game for disciplinary reasons, Ashton said: "We know what sort of player he is.

"But you are never quite sure until they get out there whether they can bring the authority and skills they show in the Heineken Cup, Premiership and in training into an England international.

"Particularly in the last 25 minutes of the first half, I thought his balance was excellent in terms of his options.

"I imagine he will be pretty pleased but let's not go too overboard on one player. It was a really good team performance, one of England's best for some time."

Ashton was particularly pleased at how England hit back after going 10-0 down early on.

"It didn't feel like it after seven minutes but I thought we showed a lot of composure," he said.

"We only trained for two hours, really, this week but we were fairly specific in what we looked at.

"We thought if we could put into operation the processes we used in training, we could cause them problems and today we more or less did that for most of the game with and without the ball.

Ashton, who considered the tournament to be one of missed opportunities, said he was frustrated by the fact that his players seemed to need a defeat to spur them into action.

"It's the biggest thing we've got to turn round," he said.

"Today we went out on the field and put into practice what we said we were going to do and that's the first time in the tournament that we've done that for a full game.

"It was a massive improvement on anything else we've done in the Six Nations so far."

Ashton laughed off suggestions that the victory had eased the pressure on him personally, which he said was always present.

"It just solidified one or two selections," he said. "It was a nice way to finish the tournament."

Reuters