IT WOULDN’T BE their first time to scale the heights of the Six Nations, but Saturday’s final round clash against England at the Aviva Stadium could be a unique experience for Ireland players and supporters.
When Ireland claimed the Grand Slam in 2009, their first in 61 years, it was thanks to a last-gasp victory over Wales in Cardiff. Nine years later, with a Championship title already in the bag, an Irish side coached by Joe Schmidt ensured a clean sweep of honours with a 24-15 success over the English at Twickenham.
Additionally, the Six Nations successes of 2014 and 2015 were achieved in Saint-Denis and Edinburgh respectively, while the Irish women’s team gained Grand Slam status amidst monsoon-like conditions in Milan on St Patrick’s Day in 2013.
Having got themselves in a strong position with four consecutive wins, Ireland are now within sight of completing the Slam in front of a largely partisan crowd of 51,700 in Dublin this weekend.
Tadhg Furlong is doing his best to guard against any form of complacency, yet he hopes he and his team-mates can produce a performance the Irish public can be proud of.
“I don’t really like overly talking about it here, because we’ve won nothing yet. That’s the dangers of complacency. You just hope us wearing a green jersey and playing well, that people can be proud to be Irish and can associate with us. I understand that everyone is not rugby people and that’s fine if rugby is not your cup of tea,” Furlong said at a press conference held at the IRFU’s High Performance Centre.
“I hope that they can see through our actions that it means something to us. It means something to play for Ireland, no matter if you’re within the island of Ireland or if you’re Irish living abroad or whatever. Just to see that it means something to us and hopefully they can be proud of us.”
Sitting beside him in the HPC, Furlong’s front-row colleague Healy offered his own view on how special it would be to secure a Grand Slam on home soil and how Ireland will need to approach the occasion.
“I think you take that apart in a few separate areas. There’s playing for Ireland in Dublin with family and friends there that you’ll see after. That they’ll see you show them what it means. That’s got its own magnitude. I think that’s what drives everyone to reach a standard that we’re shooting for,” Healy said.
“At the end of that, if we’ve done all of that, we get a great prize and we get an unbelievable celebration, but for us to do justice to everything that we train for and to play in front of family and friends on our home patch on the weekend that it is. That’s such a huge drive for us.
“We accept what the end of it is and you might have a Grand Slam and a Championship, but you park that bit. It’s about performance and preparation for performance.”
Furlong and Healy are among those to have featured prominently during Ireland’s march to a Grand Slam in 2018, yet there are others who have come into the set-up since that particular success.
From the match day 23 that was selected for last weekend’s visit to Scotland, 10 made their respective Six Nations bows from 2020 onwards. Furlong acknowledged there are different levels of emotion within the Irish camp, but that there is a general level of excitement for what Saturday’s game can bring.
“If you’re not excited about playing this weekend, why are you playing the sport? I think the group is very excited and everyone is different within that. Some people love going out there and showing how good they are,” Furlong said.
“There’s other people that maybe find that they get small on that attention or pressure. I think we’ve a very good balance in the squad where we can talk about that to get the most out of each other. It’s about enjoying the week. Enjoying the build-up, but also doing the work,” he added.