Grand Slam glory will be Ireland’s haul after arduous path

What goes around comes around. A year after bursting England’s bubble and ending a Grand Slam dream in Dublin, Ireland stand on the brink of similar glory as they prepare to storm Twickenham today.

It has been an arduous path to this point, from the drama of Stade de France and the losses to injury of Josh van der Flier, Robbie Henshaw and Chris Farrell in successive games to the joyous moment of relief as Jacob Stockdale picked off Gareth Anscombe’s pass to score under the posts and finally quell a Welsh resurgence.

Last Saturday at the Aviva Stadium brought further release as Ireland, with a lot of help from a profligate visiting backline, snuffed out a potent and confident Scottish raiding party and then sat back and watched the English title bid similarly extinguished in Paris.