James Haskell has insisted that England's players must take full responsibility for another indisciplined performance that cost them any chance of overcoming Ireland yesterday.

England conceded 18 penalties at Croke Park and had to play for 20 minutes with 14 men after Phil Vickery and Danny Care were sent to the sin-bin in their 14-13 defeat. Care's departure for a barge on Marcus Horan 11 minutes from time, when the game was still in the balance, was the decisive moment which infuriated Martin Johnson, the England head coach.

Ronan O'Gara converted the penalty to push Ireland two scores clear and although Delon Armitage's converted try brought England back to 14-13, their chance had gone.

An hour after the final whistle, Johnson was still struggling to keep his anger in check and those players who gather back at Pennyhill Park can expect a distinctly uncomfortable time over the next fortnight as they prepare to face France. They will be the lucky ones. Some of the squad may well pay for yesterday's shambles with their places in the team.

A lack of discipline has been the theme of Johnson's reign since the November defeat to Australia, when Matt Giteau was gifted the chance to kick the Wallabies to victory and England have received 10 yellow cards in their last four Tests.

England do not appear to be learning and Haskell, himself guilty of conceding a careless penalty seconds after the restart, admitted it was time to start accepting the blame. "We have to start pointing fingers," he said. "People have to put their hands up and say 'I made a mistake here' because you have to be accountable when you play international rugby and 18 penalties is not good enough. We've cost ourselves the game. We've come to Croke Park and we could have achieved something very special."

Johnson insisted that immediately after the game was not the time to decide whether players would pay for the mistakes with their place in the team. The likes of Lawrence Dallaglio have been calling for that kind of accountability throughout the Six Nations and Johnson did suggest it would be considered.

England captain Steve Borthwick also held his hands up for a self-defeating display of poor discipline. "Is it peculiar? I would agree with that if it [our poor discipline] stood out from the norm but quite clearly in the last few weeks it has not stood out," he said. "It is not peculiar - and that is the most damning indictment of us.

"We were masters of our own defeat. We have been very close to winning Test matches in the last few weeks against very good opposition away from home - but we have lost. Every one of the players is angry. We are all responsible for this."

There was no blaming the referee this week. England had taken exception to the way Jonathan Kaplan handled their 23-15 defeat to Wales a fortnight ago but Borthwick said: "I thought the referee was left by us with no option but to give penalties against us."

"I don't think they did much to earn victory," added the England centre Mike Tindall. "We made a lot of errors and let them stay in the game. They did not deserve to win that game. We gave them the game. We gave Wales the game a fortnight ago as well. It hurts."

England may be forced into changes anyway if injuries to Toby Flood (quad) and Paul Sackey (ankle) prove serious. The players' scans were being analysed today.