It was not quite what the Irish were dreaming of after maximum points from the first three rounds, but back-to-back championships puts this Ireland team in a small elite of Six Nations champions. They become the sixth team to have managed the feat and, interestingly, only the third, after Wales in 2012-13 and England in 2016-2017, to follow up a grand slam with the title. It is as if teams really want to beat you when you are grand-slam champions.
Peter O’Mahony had the air of a satisfied man. Twelve years after his Ireland debut, this has been his first full campaign as captain. It was, perhaps harshly, pointed out to him that he had never won a thing in nigh on 15 years as a captain (of Munster and intermittently Ireland), and now he has won twice in 10 months (Munster won the United Rugby Championship in May).
“It’s certainly hard to beat,” he said. “There are days like today you wouldn’t dare dream of. I’ve been through enough losses with Munster. Even the [Six Nations] game with the championship on the line away to France in the last round [in 2020]. I think that game has stood to us for a long, long time. It hurt more than ever, but did we learn a lot of lessons from it? Massively we did, and that probably stands out.”
Such was Ireland’s dominance after round three – 15 match points from 15, six clear of the field – that the last two rounds have seemed somewhat anticlimactic. Their defeat against England at Twickenham was a shock. They were not at their best, but it pays to remind ourselves that, even so, they were beaten only by a drop goal in the last play.
A reaction to that was expected in their home game against Scotland, but Ireland never quite found their form of the earlier rounds. They were grateful to escape with a result of any kind in what Andy Farrell described, rightly, as a “proper Test match”. Alas, in these hypercharged times of breathtaking rugby, “proper Test match” all too often serves as a euphemism for a bit of a letdown.
The key development is the intensity of the competition. Compared to even just 10 years ago, the quality of rugby in the Six Nations is a different class. Farrell alluded to this when asked to assess Ireland’s championship overall. “The first game [a bonus-point win against France in Marseille] is obviously the one people will talk about.
“Everyone knew what a big start to the competition that was. But I actually look at the Italy game [a 36-0 win at home]. Have a look at what’s happened since with Italy. The change in personnel that we had and how we got the bonus-point win. It says a lot about the group.”
Ireland travel next to South Africa, the world champions no less, for two Tests in July. To much squirming in the southern hemisphere, many have been hailing this Ireland team as the best in the world. Farrell is all too quick to defuse that notion. “It doesn’t get any more difficult or any more exciting than that. All you want is an opportunity to put yourself out there against the best and South Africa are 100% the best.”
The age-old question of whether team A have played poorly or team B just allowed them to play well is always pertinent and was again in the Scotland match. All too often in Dublin recently, Scotland have fallen away in the face of Irish aggression, but in this instance Ireland looked, or were made to look, somewhat pedestrian for large stretches.
Naturally, credit was attributed to Scotland’s defence by the coaches of both teams. The 233 tackles they made was the highest count of the championship – and registers in the top 10 tackle counts in Six Nations history (seventh to be precise), nine of which have been recorded against Ireland.
Scotland finished in fourth, with two wins from five. Yet they could so easily have been going for a grand slam themselves. “Frustration would be the overriding feeling,” their head coach, Gregor Townsend, said.
“We didn’t get the win against France, which was partly the [TMO] decision, partly us being behind in the last few minutes, but we’re all frustrated with the performance against Italy in that third quarter. We’ve played five games and either won or come within a score. We were frustrated we weren’t playing for the title.”
Far from the dizzy heights of taking on the world champions, Scotland next head for a tour of the Americas, with Tests against USA, Canada, Chile and Uruguay.
