Peter O’Mahony, Ireland’s captain, would not be drawn on his immediate future, having led his team to their second consecutive Six Nations title. “I need to have a talk to my wife and family and have a think about it,” he said. “I won’t be making any decision over the next few days. That was one of the most special days in my career. If not the most.”
Andy Farrell was similarly effusive about the achievement, after Ireland clinched the title with a 17-13 win against Scotland. “It was a proper Test match,” he said.
“When a trophy’s on the line for both of us, that’s how it should be, shouldn’t it. No doubt Scotland will be proud of their performance, too.
“Ultimately, we’re delighted. It’s about winning championships for us. It’s unbelievably pleasing, because it’s so hard to do. Everyone constantly talks about grand slams and gets carried away about it so much. Back-to-back grand slams have never been done before. There’s obviously a good reason for that. For us to win back-to-back Six Nations, that’s a nice feeling. It goes down in history for Irish rugby.”
Finn Russell, one of Scotland’s co‑captains, lent his voice to the growing feeling, in the northern hemisphere at least, that this Ireland team are special. “I think they’re probably the best in the world,” he said. “This is the hardest place to come in rugby and get a victory.”
It has been a bittersweet championship for Scotland but Gregor Townsend feels his team are making progress, despite another campaign of wild fluctuations in fortune.
“We were in contention over the last couple of weeks, which hasn’t been the case before,” he said. “We would have been more so if we’d been awarded that try against France [denied by the TMO at the death in round two]. We’ve had chances to win all our games. The three games we lost were all by less than a score.
“We felt we should have won against France. We underperformed against Italy, but we performed well today, and we performed well in our two victories. Two wins is not what we set out to do or what we believe this team is capable of achieving. But today was a good end to the championship in terms of the performance, but we’re still disappointed we didn’t pick up the win.
“I thought that was the best defensive performance I’ve seen from our team, not just this season but the last two or three seasons. To do it in our 22 on a few occasions was amazing, because that’s where Ireland usually come away with points.”
Time and again, the theme recurred that the Six Nations is more competitive than ever. The ever-changing narrative can conjure unexpected twists. Farrell reckons the defeat at Twickenham last weekend, which denied his team that first back-to-back grand slam of the Six Nations era, will only make his team stronger.
“I reckon the loss last week will be the best thing for us as a group,” he said of England’s 23-22 win, sealed with a last-minute drop goal by Marcus Smith. “Because some of these lads, subconsciously, they’re used to winning. But the great thing about the Six Nations is it changes week to week.
“Some people are fighting for their lives. Some of the lads in this group are not used to losing. Sometimes they might get to a point when they are turning up to games and thinking: ‘We’re doing it.’ But you’re never doing it in the Six Nations.”
