Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Players still relish tilt at title
ANDY Farrell dismissed suggestions retaining the Guinness Six Nations title could now feel like an anti-climax after Ireland’s back-to-back Grand Slam bid was crushed.
The reigning champions looked well placed to make history by delivering consecutive tournament clean sweeps before suffering Saturday’s lastgasp loss to England at Twickenham.
Avoiding defeat to Scotland in the final round will ensure Ireland keep hold of their crown and head coach Farrell feels it would be “unjust” for his team to still be in Grand Slam contention.
He said: “Anti-climax? How many times have we won the Six Nations?
“Everyone would love to be in our position.
“I’ve absolutely no doubt that the supporters will be on song. Paddy’s weekend again, with the chance of winning a Six Nations.
“It could have been a little bit better but Grand Slams are unbelievably hard to come by.
“Six Nations are hard enough, as everyone would vouch for.”
No team has won successive Grand Slams in the Six Nations era, with France the last side to achieve the feat in the 1998 Five Nations.
Ireland were seconds away from remaining on course to snap that statistic thanks to two James Lowe tries and four Jack Crowley penalties.
But Marcus Smith’s dramatic added-time drop goal earned England a 23-22 victory, raising question marks over Ireland’s game management in the final minutes.
“I thought we could have kicked longer and out,” said Farrell.
“At the end of the day, I might sound stupid saying this but I thought it would have been unjust for England not to win the game. I thought they played really well.”