WITH THE PASSING of time, Ireland’s 2026 victory at Twickenham may be best remembered for Jamison Gibson-Park’s 10-out-of-10 performance, Stuart McCloskey’s heroics on both sides of the ball, and/or Robert Baloucoune scything through the home defence like a hot knife through butter.

But as Tadhg Beirne notes, “Everyone, to an individual, performed and that’s what was most pleasing.”

The Munster captain and Ireland back-five forward certainly contributed to the iconography of Ireland’s stirring success: few moments encapsulated the effort of Andy Farrell’s side than Beirne’s pre-emptive celebration of a choke tackle in the second half, his snarl and smile almost coaxing replacement referee Pierre Brousset to sound the whistle for an Irish turnover.

There were even more conspicuous, trademark Beirne moments, too — interventions which he describes as being like “mini tries”, most notably a jackal won on his own line when the game was still very much live in the earlier exchanges.

And while he didn’t quite earn an assist for Gibson-Park’s opening score, it was his wherewithal as well as that of the scrum-half which first punctured the English rearguard. Perhaps the greatest sign that Ireland were ‘on it’ was that the communication between the pair for Gibson-Park’s quick-tap score was virtually telepathic.

“Just a little bit of ‘feel’ and understanding about it,” says Beirne. “I know what Jamo’s like, Craig (Casey) is the same. They’re always kind of looking for those opportunities.

“I don’t even know if Jamo said anything to me. We just kind of locked eyes and it was just an instinct thing.

“If you have the ball in hand… we both kind of sensed it. I went straight to him and he took the opportunity.”

Beirne accepts that there was “a bit of pressure” on Ireland heading to London following opening rounds in the Six Nations in which they were trounced by France and squeezed past the improved Italians at home.

But he insists that the Irish rugby public’s sentiments pre-Twickenham never pervaded Farrell’s players themselves. Much like 2021, when few believed they were on the right path despite the repeated insistence of Johnny Sexton among others, Ireland could feel this display brewing.

“There was never a bad mood in the camp,” Beirne says. “We weren’t hitting our potential and that’s something we were trying to focus on: trying to get the best out of one another.

“It was a pleasing feeling that we were able to put in a performance that we were proud of. I thought we were better against Italy. I think we were just very disappointed after the French game with how we played.

“We had a big focus that week in improving that performance and we did the same again against England. It’ll be no different this week. It’ll be the same mood, same goals, getting a better performance against Wales and that’s what we’ll be chasing.”

“You can’t just pat yourselves on the back and think it’s going to happen again. You have to focus on what went well, bank it, and then focus on what we need to improve on because there is no point in saying, ‘Oh it was a good performance, we will just do it again next week.’ It doesn’t work like that. You have to work incredibly hard to get those performances and it’ll be no different next week.”

Beirne, of course, made his name in Wales with Scarlets, exploding into prominence via the scenic route and starring in a Pro12 title success in 2017 before joining Munster a season later.

There were struggles in the Welsh domestic game then, certainly, but they’re altogether more pronounced now, with Ospreys all but doomed as an organisation from the end of next season.

The chickens have come home to roost for the Welsh national team too, who have suffered 11 consecutive Six Nations losses — and 21 defeats in their last 23 Tests overall.

“It’s so long since I’ve been there,” Beirne says of his time in Wales. “I look at the Scarlets now and there are maybe two, three players that are still there that were there when I was there, so a big change in the guard. I haven’t really spoken to any of them about it.

“It’s a tough time. I do remember when I was there, the same thing happening, but it just seems a little bit more serious at this point.

So yeah, look, I feel incredibly sad for all those individuals who have families and everything at home, and it’s going to create a lot of pressure for those guys.

“But you know, when you’re in in these camps, you can sort of use it, and also, you try to put it to the back of your mind at the same time because you have an opportunity to put on the jersey and represent your country and I think that’s what those guys will be doing: they’ll be just focusing on the rugby and trying to put their best performances out there.

“Wales, much like us… we’re improving game on game and they’ve been improving game on game, I believe. I think a lot of the scorelines against the teams they’ve played against have probably not painted them in the best picture in terms of how well they played in parts of those games.

“They’re just chasing down a better 80-minute performance. They were very close to getting the win against Scotland obviously. I think that performance is going to give them a lot of confidence coming in against us.”

Closer to home, then, there will be some upheaval caused by the departure of Beirne’s provincial attacking coach, Mike Prendergast, who will depart Munster and take up an opportunity with Bath from next season.

Munster skipper Beirne admits that he was saddened to learn of the news, but is magnanimous in his thoughts on Prendergast’s decision to leave his native province, with whom he won a URC in 2023.

“I was disappointed to hear for sure, not just to lose Mike as a coach but also the person he is. He’s brilliant around the squad and everyone gets on unbelievably well with him, but at the same time there’s an opportunity for him elsewhere and he’s going to do what’s best for his family and I completely understand that.

“He’s done so much for us as a club since he’s come in, fresh ideas and we’ve also won a league under his attack, so he’s been brilliant for us and we’ll be sad to see him go but we completely understand his decision too.

“Who knows what’s going to happen in terms of someone else coming in? It’d be interesting to see what happens because our attack might change again and, look, sometimes that can do the world of good as well. So, you’ve got a bit of turnover but you can’t fault these people making these decisions they’re making, just for themselves and for their families.

“I don’t have a bad thing to say about Mike. We wish him the very best and we still have a long season ahead of us, and he’s still with us until the end of the season, and he’s going to give 100% of himself to the club because he loves Munster.”