England head coach Andy Robinson admitted he was "absolutely staggered'' by two decisions that went against his side at Twickenham.

Robinson's men suffered an agonising last minute defeat at the hands of Ireland - who claimed their second Triple Crown in three years - when Shane Horgan crashed through the tackle of Lewis Moody to secure a 28-24 win in the dying seconds of the game.

But Robinson took issue with the decision to allow Horgan's first try in the eighth minute of the game when he appeared to put a foot in touch as he kicked ahead to score.

The England coach could not hide his annoyance with the decision to award the try.

"Obviously it's very frustrating I thought the performance of the side was very good throughout with a tremendous start and I can't understand how a touch judge can award a try as it was,'' he said.

"He (Horgan) was stood on the other side of the line and the ball was on the line. There was no doubt, it wasn't even 50-50.

"It allowed Ireland back into the game and I'm absolutely staggered by that.''

Robinson was also unhappy with Ireland's second try, when Denis Leamy pounced after England were forced to retake a throw in to a line-out five metres from their own line.

"We've given them two tries, the first one, and then the second when Benny Cohen took a quick throw in and the other touch judge pulled him back for no apparent reason.

"We've lost the game by four points. It's small margins, but nothing really went our way today. I couldn't fault the effort of our players.''

This was England's third successive defeat in the Six Nations, but Robinson refused to accept the team is in free-fall.

"There is only one disappointing performance for us and that was last weekend against France,'' he said.

"I thought against Scotland we performed very, very well but just didn't finish them off, and today I felt we played well but again we didn't finish them off.

"Against Italy and Wales we won, France was disappointing but again we gave them three tries from our mistakes.

"International rugby can change very, very quickly and the momentum of the game can swing on decisions that are made.

"Today I felt we were on the wrong end of a number of decisions and that's disappointing. Credit to Ireland though. They've come here and taken their chances and played well.''

Robinson had made a raft of changes to his side after last weekend's humbling in Paris, and he paid tribute to the contribution of the players he brought in.

Leicester Tigers fly-half Andy Goode bounced back from a nervy beginning to turn in a polished display, and Robinson was delighted with his performance.

"The team's moved forward today,'' Robinson said. "Andy Goode has come in at fly-half and had a very, very good game and shown good composure.

"Lee Mears in his first start and all the players who came in played well and gelled very well into the side - that showed from the first minute.

"The team has tremendous spirit and credit should go to Martin Corry for the way he has led the team.

"There's a fine line between winning and losing and today we were on the wrong side of that.''

Despite losing three games in the championship for the second year running,

Robinson remained upbeat about his own future in charge of the national team, and insisted he remained confident in his ability to lead the team into the World Cup next year.

"People have got lots of opinions and when you're losing those opinions come out even more,'' he said.

"Everybody will be reviewed, including myself, and we'll look at how we can move forward. I'll be meeting with Francis Baron (RFU chief executive) to discuss everything, but I'm not expecting to be going anywhere.''

Jubilant Ireland skipper Brian O'Driscoll toasted his Triple Crown winners.

The Irish completed a clean sweep of home nations scalps and subjected stricken England to their second successive fourth-place finish in the championship.

"All the boys are elated. We've improved right throughout the Six Nations and have got better with each game. We have a great team," he said.

"We rarely play against a poor England team and you only ever beat England by a score - that's how it's been over the last three years.

"We brought our game to England and managed to perform in the manner we wanted, but it doesn't come much tighter than today.

"England have a very strong record at Twickenham and we knew they would come out hard after back-to-back defeats.

"We played some great rugby in the first half. England had a purple patch in the second half and it went right to the death.

"We've felt there is great belief in the team. This Six Nations has been a watershed where everything has come together.

"Usually eight weeks in camp can feel like six months but this time it's gone much quicker because we've enjoyed each other's company.

"We've grown with each performance and you could see that out there today.

"We just had to keep plugging away and come up with something special at the end to crack England - thankfully it came off."

Shane Horgan spearheaded Ireland's Triple Crown assault with a two-try salvo but the first was shrouded in controversy thanks to dithering touch judge Rob Dickson.

Horgan hacked ahead and when his kick and foot both connected with the touchline, the official raised his flag only to then lower it a heartbeat later and the ensuing try was allowed to stand.

England boss Robinson declared he was "staggered" by Dickson's blunder but Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan was more concerned by Simon Easterby's yellow card.

"I suppose there were some tight calls out there. To me Easterby's yellow card turned the tide against us. Matt Dawson took a quick tap and go and ran straight at him," he said.

"Simon wasn't 10 metres and got binned. Suddenly we were on the back foot and with 10 minutes to go were down to 14 men. I was upset with the yellow card because it meant the game was slipping away from us."

Horgan crossed six minutes into injury time to send Ireland fans into delirium and O'Sullivan admitted today's victory was sweeter than their 19-13 Twickenham triumph two years ago.

"In 2004 it was different because we hadn't actually won anything. Today we could win the Triple Crown, so there was the emotion that goes with that," he said.

"To score a try in nearly the last play of the game capped it all. We had our backs to the ball in the dying moments."

O'Sullivan hailed two-try hero Horgan whose strong running was a constant menace to the England defence.

"Shane has come of age this year. It was a tough autumn for him. He tried very hard - maybe too hard and wasn't himself," he said.

"The turning point of the Six Nations was at half-time of the France game when he was leader in the changing room.

"He went out and performed in the second half and never looked back. I knew he had it in him."