Ireland flanker Peter O’Mahony has called on his side to produce their best performance of the Six Nations ahead of Saturday’s Grand Slam decider against England.
O’Mahony was awarded the man of the match award in last year’s win over Eddie Jones’ side, the first time England had lost under the Australian, and the Munster captain insists that they’ll have to produce a similar performance if they are to secure Ireland’s first Grand Slam win since 2009 on St. Patrick’s Day.
“I think we all do,” O’Mahony said when he was asked if he could replicate last year’s effort against England this Saturday at Twickenham.
“It has got to be our best performance. We were in their position before and it’s a easy place to get motivated in and it’s backs to the walls stuff for them.
“They’re going to come hard at us, and we know how tough that is going to be and it’s going to have to be our best performance of the tournament so far.”
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt said that anticipation was growing within Ireland camp and that players and staff are now starting to feel the magnitude of what is a momentous opportunity for Irish Rugby.
“There’s a sense of anticipation,” said Schmidt.
“There’s a sense of nervousness. I think the magnitude of what it’s going to take to get us over the line is very much up in most of the thinking, but at the same time, there’s been a good opportunity to relax a little bit and recover from a pretty intense game against Scotland.”
Schmidt also refused to be drawn on comments that England head coach Eddie Jones made at a sponsorship conference last year where he referred to Ireland as “scummy” and Wales as a “little shit place”.
“I’m not exactly sure what they were,” added Schmidt when asked about Jones’ comments.
“I know there was a little bit of noise made about them but they’re not exactly relevant to us to be honest. I don’t know what the specifics of them are but those words don’t impact on how we play or how his team play and that’s our focus.”
