IRELAND FORWARD Peter O’Mahony admits last night’s defeat in Cardiff is tough to take, but the squad will be up for the visit of England next weekend.
Many hoped for a title-decider on St Patrick’s weekend in Dublin against Eddie Jones’ side.
But a loss to Wales means Ireland’s title hopes are over for another year.
“Of course there’s motivation for that,” said the Munster man when asked about the prospect of halting England’s march to a championship win, “and you’re playing at home, I don’t think we’ve lost at home in a long time in the Six Nations.
“You all know we don’t need motivation when we’re playing at home. But then it’s England in the last game of the Six Nations, I think we can finish second, so there’s another carrot for us.
“There’s plenty of motivation for us there.”
He continued: “I think international rugby is very physical, very quick. England will be looking to win the game next week, nothing else. It will be big.”
Joe Schmidt recalibrated Ireland’s targets in the post match press conference as finishing in the top half of highly-competitive table. Are England, though, a cut above the rest this season?
“The margins are small but it would be hard to argue with that statement,” said O’Mahony. “Obviously they are going for 18 in a row and 19 potentially. But it is small margins, it’s on a knife-edge.”
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