‘We just had answers for everything’
JOHNNY SEXTON has hailed Ireland’s Grand Slam heroes — and in particular the emerging stars that helped power Ireland to a Six Nations clean sweep. The late blast of winter weather derailed Ireland’s homecoming plans after heavy snow in Dublin led to the cancellation of the homecoming celebrations at Lansdowne Road. This was after over 30,000 free tickets had been snapped up by eager supporters. They can at least console themselves with the memories of Saturday’s stunning destruction of mighty England at Twickenham. And they will take further heart from Sexton’s assessment of Ireland’s resources. Asked to compare this side to the one that recorded an historic win against New Zealand in Chicago in November 2016, he pointed to the changes. Only six of the starting 15 that day lined out on Saturday, and in total just nine of the matchday 23 from that win were in the squad in London. ‘That is what makes this campaign so special, that so many new guys came in, and I think we should give so much credit to the coaching staff,’ said Sexton. ‘There were guys who were injured and who were a huge part of this team over the last four years, and then to lose Robbie (Henshaw) for most of the campaign, among others, and guys just kept coming in. Garry (Ringrose) did, even though he has not played a lot of rugby. His two performances were incredible. It just seemed to fit this year. We seemed to have answers for everything.’ Attention next week will focus back on the provinces as Leinster and Munster prepare for European Cup quarterfinals, but for Ireland, the priority will be the looming three-Test summer tour of Australia. Schmidt was asked what needs to be done to stop this extraordinary achievement becoming the high point for this Ireland generation. ‘It’s hard for it not to be the high point, because right here, right now it’s a little bit of history for us,’ said Schmidt. ‘It’s a really neat story of a year that has managed to see us win every game that we played, which is incredibly special. ‘It’s also seen us go 12 games breaking new ground consecutively (no Irish team has ever won 12 games in a row before). ‘That’s the other thing, you don’t quite know what condition or how many you’re going to get together to go to the next place anyway.’