THE SENIOR PLAYERS in Andy Farrell’s squad have enough recent experience to fall back on to ensure complacency doesn’t begin to creep in as they enjoy the momentum generated from a superb run of performances and notable wins.
Last Saturday’s dominant defeat of Wales saw Ireland stretch their winning run out to nine games, a string of results which has taken in impressive wins against England and New Zealand, among others.
This weekend they travel to Paris for a round two Six Nations clash with France, the winners of which will be viewed as favorites to go on and win the tournament outright.
To top it all off, this is an Ireland team who are playing an exciting, impressive brand of rugby, their free-flowing attack complimented by a solid defensive system.
In short, the Ireland camp is currently an enjoyable place to be.
“Yeah, big time. We were happy (with the Wales game), it was a good start,” says James Ryan.
“Probably the good thing about it is, as Faz said and he was right, it was a good start but there was a lot we could be better at. So it’s a good place to be with this week in mind. The general feeling was that we have another level in us so loads to improve on and work on and it’s an exciting week.
“This is one of the fixtures that you want to be involved in, away in the Stade de France, it’s such an amazing stadium and these are the games you want to be involved in so it’s a great feeling to the week so far.”
The Paris stadium is a special venue for Ryan, as the Leinster lock made his Six Nations debut there in 2018, the day Johnny Sexton produced his famous match-winning drop goal.
Since then, Ryan has clocked up 41 Test caps and experienced the highs and lows of life at the top-end of international rugby. A Grand Slam win in 2018 was followed by a crushing World Cup exit one year later. The 2020 and 2021 Six Nations were frustrating tournaments with Ireland failing to perform to their full potential as Farrell tried to implement a new style of rugby, which only fully clicked on the final weekend against England last season.
Now Ireland are one of the form teams in world rugby, and the feeling within camp is that this could just be the start of something special.
“Yeah, it instils a bit of belief that the path your following is going in the right direction,” Ryan says of the current run of results.
I think confidence is important as well, really important. Probably at the same time, I know what we spoke about last week, in (November) 2018 we beat New Zealand at home in the Aviva and it was a massive win, the first time on Irish soil… Then we rocked up and got steamrolled in the first game of the Six Nations.
“So I think we’re pretty grounded and we know that it’s a new campaign now, and it’s not starting again, but there can’t be any complacency, we’ve got to keep pushing forward.
“Even though we were happy with last week, this week is another challenge again and a good opportunity for us to keep pushing our boundaries.”
Ireland’s attack has taken most of the plaudits recently, but Farrell has been keen to highlight the strength of Ireland’s defence. They were five minutes away from holding Wales scoreless at the Aviva on Saturday, and conceded just four tries across their three games against Japan, New Zealand and Argentina in the autumn.
“I think our defence has maybe changed a little bit in that we’re not trying to have every box ticked before we get off the line and go after teams,” Ryan explains.
“We’re just trying to be brave and go after teams, even when maybe we don’t have the perfect numbers or have the perfect picture. So we’re just trying to create as much pressure as we can and we’re just looking to keep doing that.
“This week, one area we’ve looked at is our speed to our feet, our want to get back involved in the game defensively and be better, our energy, than it was on the weekend.
I think that mentality is huge for us, you know, the energy we can bring to our defence this weekend because you don’t want to give the French players time and space. You need to be ahead of the game with these guys. You can’t be chasing the game or you’re in big trouble.
“So that mentality to get after teams as much as we can and always looking to get back in the game would one of the cornerstones of our defensive mentality.”
A win in France would leave Ireland in the driving seat ahead of the final three rounds of the tournament. Standing in their way is a special group of French players, but Ireland won’t be short on confidence when they board their flight to Paris later this week.
“We know it’s an unbelievable opportunity. Weeks like this don’t come around often so we’re trying not to think too much about the occasion and just focus on our own performance, even though I’ve talked about the stadium and the atmosphere and how great that is.
“Faz would be big on our performance and measuring our performance this weekend rather than the outcome. That’s what he’s big on and that’s what we’ll focus on again this week.”
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