twelve tries were scored by ireland throughout the tournament, and five wins left the team on top of the table at the end of the championship with ten points. they opened with a 30–21 win over france at home stadium croke park on 7 february. on 15 february ireland's second match was a 9–38 beating of italy at the stadio flaminio in rome. on 28 february, ireland beat england 14–13 at croke park and on 14 march, ireland beat scotland 15–22 at murrayfield stadium. then followed the grand slam against wales on 21 march 2009. that game was attended by the president of ireland mary mcaleese, who presented the trophy, and taoiseach brian cowen. following the game there were tributes from politicians including brian cowen, leader of the opposition enda kenny and minister for arts, sport and tourism martin cullen. a civic reception for the team took place outside dublin's mansion house on 22 march at 16:30, with 18,000 fans attending alongside taoiseach brian cowen and dublin's deputy lord mayor emer costelloe. 2,000 fans had earlier greeted the team upon their arrival at dublin airport. brian o'driscoll described 21 march as a "sweet, sweet day". the game was watched by 945,000 people in ireland, the highest rating television programme in the country by that stage of 2009. former coach eddie o'sullivan was said to be "delighted" for the team. brian o'driscoll was named player of the tournament, beating italy's sergio parisse and ireland teammate paul o'connell. o'connell was later named captain of the british and irish lions team to tour south africa and containing fourteen members of the grand slam winning irish team on 21 april 2009, describing it as "a great honour".