We must put clash with England out of our minds, says Best
SKIPPER Rory Best has been busy laying down the law in the run-up to this year’s Six Nations, insisting any Ireland player entertaining thoughts of lifting the trophy against England on March 18 will be in for a rude awakening in the coming weeks.
Chasing a third title in four seasons, the hope is that the outcome of the championship will be decided by the eagerly awaited St Patrick’s weekend showdown with the defending champions in Dublin.
However, Best, one of just three players to have started all 15 Six Nations games on Joe Schmidt’s watch (Devin Toner and Conor Murray the other two), believes there is no room for complacency in what could be the most competitive tournament for quite some time.
‘When you captain a side you always dream of lifting silverware,’ admitted Best, whose first campaign as captain ended in last March’s third-place finish. However, despite high hopes of success following victories over South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, preparations this past week at Carton House have been aimed as damping down optimism.
‘As a group we know that as soon as one guy in our collective looks beyond Scotland at Murrayfield and looks to halfway through the Six Nations, end of the Six Nations, whatever it is, I have been around long enough to know as well as anyone that if you take your eye off the ball that is when your performance starts to suffer. If one cog in 15 slips a little bit at this level, you’re going to come unstuck.’
Ireland have traditionally fared well in the eight Six Nations seasons when they have had three away matches, completing the hat-trick of away wins on three occasions in Scotland, Italy and Wales.
They open this term on the road in Edinburgh next Saturday and then visit Rome the following weekend, but coach Schmidt echoed Best’s sentiment that nothing can be taken for granted in a tournament that many people believe Ireland will win. ‘Favourites is a tag that is external to our environment,’ he insisted. ‘I know we were 13/1 in a twohorse race against the All Blacks. I’m not saying they [bookmakers] don’t get it right sometimes, but things turn up. That is why people love sport, because you don’t actually know what the outcome is going to be and part of the fun is predicting the outcome. We try to go less for prediction and more for preparation.
‘My fourth Six Nations is probably going to be the most competitive and difficult to assess of all of them despite having one team, England, that has been so dominant for the last 13, 14 months in the way they have performed.
‘I’m sure France are going to England next week with a real spring in their step based on what they did in November and I’ve no doubt Scotland are rubbing their hands together waiting for us because of how they did in November.’