O'Sullivan still gunning for Triple Crown

Eddie O’Sullivan insists the Triple Crown remains a coveted prize despite Ireland’s recent dominance over the home nations creating a “blase” attitude to their success.

Victory against Scotland will hand Ireland their third Triple Crown in four years, with nine individual players completing the hat-trick, but it will be only their ninth in championship history.

Wales’ 2005 Grand Slam winners have been the solitary home nation to topple Ireland in the RBS 6 Nations over the last four years but O’Sullivan is adamant the clean sweep is still a special achievement.

“There’s always a danger familiarity breeds contempt but the Triple Crown is still worth winning,” he said.

“Beating three of the home nations every year is great if you can do it.

“When you win too many Triple Crowns people write them off but for a long time we would have broken the lid off it if we could. Now we have two with the possibility of a third.

“People are getting blase about them but it’s the next goal we can achieve and it’s worth achieving.

“But it will only happen if we go to Murrayfield and win.”

O’Sullivan stressed victory over Scotland is no foregone conclusion, even though Frank Hadden’s side have endured mixed fortunes in this year’s Six Nations.

They were poor against England, routed Wales and then gifted Italy their first away win since joining the championship in 2000 thanks to a nightmare opening 10 minutes.

Ireland will be their toughest proposition to date but forwards coach George Graham believes he has the pack to ensure there will be no Triple Crown celebrations this year.

Graham declared yesterday this is Scotland’s strongest pack for some time, leaving O’Sullivan in little doubt where the main battleground will be at Murrayfield on Saturday.

“I wasn’t sure how Scotland would approach the game until this morning when I read comments from their forwards coach George Graham,” he said.

“He said this was the best Scottish pack for many a year. I suspect that means they will try and beat us up in the forwards.

“Their gameplan will be to take us on up front and give our pack a good battering. They’ve thrown down a marker with what they’ve said about their pack.

“Defensively the Scottish line-out is one of the best in the world. On average they poach 30% of opposition ball, which is a pretty good statistic.

“I’m sure they will target our line-out and try to deny us that platform. It will be a very intense game, with no quarter asked or given.”

Ireland have made one enforced change to the side that thumped England 43-13 at Croke Park with Eoin Reddan replacing Isaac Boss, who has a shoulder injury, on the bench.

“It wasn’t a difficult team selection. Everyone is in good health at the moment and the last performance against England was very good,” said O’Sullivan.

“Isaac has bruised his AC joint and it will take at least a week to heal.

“We’ll have a look again early next week but I wouldn’t be over optimistic about his chances for Italy. It will be tight.

“Reddan has been ever-present in the squad for the last year and he steps in.

“It’s good to have him to call on. He’s a very good passer of the ball and a very smart footballer who reads the game very well.

“The move to Wasps has done him a lot of good because he’s now playing in an environment where he has to make decisions all the time.”