Wilkinson dived over in the left-hand corner for the score - but his right foot was quite clearly seen to be trailing along the ground before the ball was grounded.

Yet Irish TMO Donal Courtenay awarded a try, leaving Hadden furious.

"What's the point of having a TMO if they get it so horribly wrong?" said Hadden to the BBC.

"It's hugely irritating.

"It's not humanly possible to make that mistake. It was so obviously wrong."

Wilkinson himself admitted that he hadn't been convinced he had scored.

"When I went over in the corner I felt it was touch and go with getting the ball down and my foot down," said the England fly-half.

"That is what the video ref is for. Hopefully it was a try. I am not one for accepting things otherwise."

Hadden also felt hard done by in losing 42-20, but praised the way England were able to raise their game when it mattered.

"There were areas of the game where we didn't play quite as well as we'd hoped," he said.

"Credit to England, they played extremely well but we made them play well.

"After 50 minutes we were on course to do what we wanted to do, which was take the game to the wire.

"Some would say two tries down here is a fair tally. I don't see (the scoreline) as a disaster. We certainly believe we've got a big part to play in these championships.

"Ultimately we came to win today but failed to do that."