SIX NATIONS : IReLAND
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IrEland
Having beaten New Zealand in the Autumn Internationals , Ireland came into this 6 Nations with serious designs on winning the Championship . They have proven quality throughout the side and their ability to transition away from some of the players that retired after the last World Cup has been impressive .
However , their plans for the tournament were derailed in their first fixture as they travelled to Scotland and were narrowly beaten 27-22 . The game itself was a terrific match and whilst they will have been disappointed to lose there were plenty of positives to take from the performance .
They quickly put the result behind them with a resounding 63-10 win away in Italy in which they showed how good they can be . Whilst Italy have become the weakest side in the tournament by some margin Ireland put them to the sword in impressive fashion with standout flanker CJ Stander claiming a hat-trick .
This set them up for a bruising encounter with the French which they eventually won 19-9 . Whilst lacking the free-flowing rugby of the week before , this game highlighted some of Ireland ’ s biggest strengths and their game management to enable them to take the victory was superb . They were never really troubled by the French and set themselves up for two huge matches against Wales and England .
It looked like that fixture could turn out to be a winner takes all contest but that possibility was ended as they failed to overcome Wales , losing 22-9 . Ireland were always in the match but never quite found the cutting edge that they needed to come away with the victory . They will be disappointed with some of their play as they let Wales off the hook on more than one occasion and will be determined to bounce back in their final fixture .
Having already beaten New Zealand this season , if they are able to beat reigning Champions England as well they will lay down a marker for the future and they will go into the match determined to put right this weekend ’ s result .
The Irish side has plenty of quality in it and should have nothing to fear at home to England . If they produce the same level of performance as they did against the French they will be very difficult to beat . Whilst they would have liked to have won the Championship that now looks very unlikely but there is still much for the Irish to be optimistic about for the future .
16 Issue 69