The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Irish eyes are on Triple Crown after Wales win
IRELAND 24 WALES 14
Ireland lock Iain Henderson hopes painful memories of being humiliated by England in 2019 can help clinch Triple Crown glory at Twickenham.
Andy Farrell’s side travel to London later this month having made a flying start to the Guinness Six Nations by dispatching Scotland and Wales in successive weeks.
Ireland collapsed to an embarrassing 57-15 defeat to Eddie Jones’ men during a World Cup warm-up match last summer, just over six months after being beaten 32-20 by them on home soil in the Six Nations.
Ulster captain Henderson admits the heavier of those two emphatic losses remains etched in Irish minds and is eager to make positive use of that chastening experience when they attempt to complete a clean sweep of victories over the home nations in a fortnight’s time.
“Obviously the Triple Crown is something that would be great to win,” said Henderson.
“But what a lot of the players will be thinking about is the last game that we had in Twickenham and how that definitely didn’t go the way we wanted it to go.
“We’ll definitely be looking back at that and looking to see how we can make improvements and what we can do.
“I think when any team puts 50 on you, there’s a wee element of surprise there.
“We’ll look back at that, we’ll see what went wrong. But ultimately we’ll be wanting to produce a very different performance.”
Ireland, then under the guidance of former boss Joe Schmidt, shipped eight tries at the home of English rugby last August.
They made it back-to-back victories at the start of a new era under head coach Farrell with Saturday’s convincing win over reigning Grand Slam champions Wales in Dublin.
Tries from Jordan Larmour, Tadhg Furlong, Josh Van Der Flier and Andrew Conway secured the statement bonus-point success, which followed an unconvincing opening weekend win over Scotland.
Henderson believes a fast, physical start will be essential on February 23 at Twickenham as Ireland strive for further improvement and consistent performances.
“England will definitely be up for it, they’ll be looking to go after us, come out all guns blazing,” continued the 27-year-old.
“We’ve got a week off now, a week to regenerate and recuperate, and try and fix what we think needs fixed. And going into that England week we can really ramp up.”
Justin Tipuric has no doubt that Wales remain title contenders despite their first defeat in the tournament for two years.
The loss in Dublin ended a run of eight successive Six Nations wins, and with resurgent France next up in Cardiff on February 22, followed by England at Twickenham, life is not about to get any easier for Tipuric and company.
Asked if Wales can still win this season’s competition, Wales flanker Tipuric said: “Yes, of course.
“Especially this year, because there are so many good teams and anybody can turn over anybody on a given day.”
Wales have still not won a Six Nations game in Dublin since 2012, while they will also need to monitor wing Josh Adams, who suffered a hip injury, and fly-half Dan Biggar after he failed a head injury assessment, during the build-up to France.
It was a first defeat for Wales head coach Wayne Pivac in his third game at the helm since succeeding Warren Gatland.
Pivac said: “It’s an opportunity for us to have a look at our game.
“We’ve got to make sure when we have got the ball we look after it and build the pressure. At the end of that usually comes some points.”