In an attritional, forward-dominated contest, the 21-year-old fly-half scored all his side’s points by landing four penalties as England ended a decade of Championship misery in Dublin with a first Six Nations win in the Irish capital since 2003 – the last year they won the Grand Slam and, later, the World Cup.
Ireland, who had Slam hopes of their own after beating defending champions Wales in Dublin last week, saw replacement fly-half Ronan O’Gara tie the match at 6-6 with two second half penalties after England led 6-0 at the break.
However, with 10 minutes left, O’Gara missed a penalty and that meant Ireland now needed a converted try to win the match.
But with England captain and openside flanker Chris Robshaw producing a man-of-the match display at the breakdown, it was the visitors who triumphed.
Defeat ensured there was no double celebration for Brian O’Driscoll after the Ireland great’s wife, Amy, gave birth to he couple’s first child, a daughter, earlier Sunday.
England coach Stuart Lancaster said that the tough conditions had made it a grim battle between the two sides.
“I think we had a good first half, but at the start of the second we had a couple of turnovers that put us under pressure,” he told the BBC.
“I think we grew in stature towards the end of the game and deserved our win. We hadn’t won here for a long time and we gone and did it. We will take it.”
Meanwhile Robshaw paid tribute to his Farrell by saying: “He’s got a great repertoire of skills, but he’s got a great team around him who keep pushing him to get better. We’re not going to get carried away.”
And Farrell, who landed four of his six goal-kicks, said: “If you practise enough it’s only another kick. I kick thousands of them.”
Ireland captain Jamie Heaslip had no complaints about the result.
“They (England) played the conditions very well, smothered us when we had ball and made our lives very hard,” said the No 8.
Farrell gave England an early lead with a second minute penalty.
Tempers flared in the 14th minute when Ireland prop Cian Healy’s use of the boot on England’s Dan Cole at a ruck sparked a mass brawl in a match featuring several candidates for this year’s British and Irish Lions tour of Australia.
In such a tight contest, discipline was especially important, and Farrell punished Ireland for coming round the wrong side of a ruck with a superb penalty from nearly 50 metres to make it 6-0 to England in the 28th minute.
Ireland lost fly-half Jonathan Sexton with a hamstring pull just after the half-hour mark, with O’Gara coming on in conditions seemingly well-suited to his kicking game.
Early in the second half Ireland won a scrum penalty and O’Gara cut England’s advantage in half.
Lancaster stiffened his side’s physical presence by bringing on centre Manu Tuilagi for Billy Twelvetrees and Courtney Lawes for second row Joe Launchbury.
Tuilagi missed England’s 38-18 Calcutta Cup win over Scotland last week with an ankle injury, allowing Twelvetrees to make his Test debut.
England, though, were a man down in the 57th minute when blindside flanker James Haskell was sin-binned by French referee Jerome Garces for kicking the ball out of a ruck.
O’Gara landed the ensuing penalty to tie the match at 6-6 heading into the final quarter.
But England, with full-back Alex Goode and wing Mike Brown returning the high-ball with interest, outscored Ireland 6-3 in the 10 minutes Haskell was off the field.
Farrell landed two more penalties, after Tuilagi nearly scored a try following a clever chip ahead by scrum-half Ben Youngs, to secure victory.
On Saturday, Scotland rebounded from their drubbing at the hands of England at Twickenham a week earlier to defeat Italy 34-10 in their Six Nations match at Murrayfield.
Leading 13-3 at half-time, the Scots ran in four opportunistic tries from Tim Visser, Matt Scott Stuart Hogg and Sean Lamont, with Greig Laidlaw supplying the rest of the points from the boot.
Alessandro Zanni battled over for a late consolation Italian try, converted by Kris Burton.
“Brilliant, delighted for the crowd,” said Laidlaw. “It’s been a rough time for us and we spoke about taking our emotions onto the field and what it felt like to be playing for Scotland.
“But we are not getting carried away, we have to go away and understand how we won this game and take it from there.”
In front of a full-house, the Scots made a rousing start with winger Visser and Ruaridh Jackson immediately in the action with piercing runs.
And Visser was denied a try by a wicked bounce as he tried to latch on to a beautifully-weighted lob from Laidlaw.
Having weathered the early storm, the Italians, victors over France last weekend, replied in positive fashion.
They were handed a clear-cut chance to break the deadlock when lock Jim Hamilton was offside in a maul – but Luciano Orquera shook his head in disbelief as the ball crashed back from the post.
Italy kept up the momentum and only some excellent foraging work by Rob Harley stepped the tide in the short term.
Then a huge clearance from full back Hogg eased the pressure further.
That was the cue for Hamilton and Johnnie Beattie to test the visiting defence with powerful runs, which led to a penalty opportunity for Laidlaw – which he confidently took from 35 metres to give his side the lead against the run of play.
Laidlaw’s strike prompted the Italians into mounting more raids at the other end, but without looking likely to break through.
Conversely, while Scotland’s attacks were not frequent – but they looked more capable of earning points.
And sure enough, Laidlaw doubled his penalty tally following a ruck offence.
Centre Scott then homed in on the line when the Italian back markers made a hash of dealing with a Sean Lamont chip.
But Scott’s dash was halted by a marvellous tackle by scrum-half Tobias Botes.
The celebrations among the home fans were only delayed for a matter of seconds as they watched Visser jinxing his way to a touchdown from 20 metres after he had taken a lovely short pass from Jackson.
Laidlaw added the extras from a tricky angle to provide Scotland with another dose of self-belief.
Italy found more fluency in the build up to the interval and they at least broke their duck through an Orquera penalty in the 39th minute.
But the Scots punished them two minutes after the restart with a try right out the top drawer.
Sean Maitland was the creator, coming off his wing and into midfield.
His offload to Scott was perfectly executed and the youngster wasn’t going to be caught this time. Laidlaw again converted.
Even better was to come for the hosts four minutes later when Hogg finished the game as a contest.
Italy looked certain to score as Orquera broke into the danger zone – only for the flying Scot to intercept his pass.
Hogg had 90 metres and at least four markers to negotiate, but he answered the challenge with verve and poise to grab a third try, giving man of the match Laidlaw an easy kick to open up a 24-point gap.
Italy made a spate of substitutions in a bid to change the pattern of the encounter, but at this stage the Scots were in total control.
Scott ploughed over again in the corner following more quick-handed work by Maitland, but the effort was chalked off for a marginally forward pass.
However, touchdown number four did come along almost immediately, courtesy of Lamont, who scooted in under the crossbar after scooping up a loose ball at the base of an unattended ruck.
Also on Saturday, Wales ended an eight-match losing streak with a 16-6 victory over France in their Six Nations clash at the Stade de France.
A try by winger George North – his 12th for his country – late in the second-half gave the visitors the breathing space they needed to record only their fourth win in Paris since 1975.
For a woeful France side it was the first time since 1982 they had lost their opening two matches and coach Philippe Saint-Andre is left with a massive job to rebuild morale with a trip to England in a fortnight.
“Words cannot describe how much this means – what a fantastic feeling,” said Wales full-back Leigh Halfpenny.
“The boys played unbelievably well. We dug deep to get this fantastic win – it’s been a long time coming.” Saint-Andre admitted France will need to dig deep in their next match, against old enemy England at Twickenham in two weeks’ time.
“We can no longer win the Six Nations, but we can win respect,” he said.
The opening 10 minutes saw Wales camped in the French half, but ruining any incisive move with a forward pass or a knock-on, while Dan Biggar’s drop goal attempt fell well short.
The French struck with their first scoring opportunity when referee George Clancy penalised Wales for collapsing the scrum and Frederic Michalak kicked the penalty.
However, they were all square soon afterwards as France fell foul of Clancy and Halfpenny slotted over the penalty.
Wales were playing with much more discipline and purpose than in the first-half of their defeat against the Irish last week – when they conceded 23 points – but they could not breach the French defence with full-back Yoann Huget dealing with everything thrown at him.
A distinctly mediocre first-half – not aided by a pitch that cut up badly – ended 3-3 with the players exiting to a chorus of booing from spectators braving freezing temperatures in the French capital.
The Welsh took the lead early in the second-half when Halfpenny kicked a penalty after a storming run by scrum-half Mike Phillips got his team deep into French territory.
The hosts missed a golden opportunity to draw level immediately afterwards when Francois Trinh-Duc, who came on at half-time for Benjamin Fall, sent a relatively easy drop goal wide.
They did get back on equal terms in the 53rd minute when Michalak converted a penalty after Wales collapsed the scrum.
Saint-Andre rang the changes completely at this point replacing his entire front row and taking off the ineffective Maxime Machenaud at scrum-half and sending on Morgan Parra.
The Welsh pinned the French back in their half but again failed to press home their territorial advantage as North, bursting in from the wing into midfield, knocked on from the simplest of passes.
The errors kept on piling up and the paucity of quality play was summed up when Michalak, with time to think, passed the ball not into Huget’s arms but into his face allowing the Welsh to recover the ball.
Wales took full advantage from the ensuing passage of play.
Biggar kicked behind the defence and the ball bounced kindly for North who, despite being tackled by Tinrh-Duc, was able to touch down before his foot went into touch.
Halfpenny landed a superb conversion to make it 13-6 and added a penalty shortly after to rub salt into French wounds.
“The Scots defended really well and there were many issues with our speed and defence throughout the game as well.
“We played in such an individual way, now we have two weeks to try to understand and come back for the Wales game.”