“Nothing Is Impossible” reads the motto plastered on one side of Munster’s Musgrave Park. Yet the probability of Ireland beating England’s rampant Red Roses seemed wholly impossible given their Six Nations dominance.
So it proved under milky Irish clouds, even if the scoreline was not an apt reflection of the hosts’ defensive doggedness. Ireland’s improvement on the women’s Test scene has been vast, but this was still an eye-watering reminder of how England remain streets – motorways – ahead.
The hosts pushed the Grand Slam champions to a deeply uncomfortable place in an absorbing contest that exposed England’s vulnerabilities in a way that few teams do.