Nations Cup is a competition 'we want to win', says John Fogarty

Ireland will head into the new Autumn Nations Cup on Friday night seeking improvement and development as well as silverware, ensuring it will not just be Wales with plenty of motivation at Aviva Stadium.

Wales visit Dublin for the eight-nation tournament opener with plenty of points to proves after five consecutive Guinness Six Nations defeats that consigned the 2019 Grand Slam winners to fifth place under new head coach Wayne Pivac. 

The backward step in the first campaign following Warren Gatland's departure also saw new defence coach Byron Hayward leave Pivac’s coaching team last week and left the former Scarlets boss admitting the Welsh set-up looked a “mess”.

So while Ireland will expect a backlash from wounded Wales behind closed doors on Friday evening, scrum coach John Fogarty says there is plenty to motivate the home side as they bid to rebound from a final-round championship defeat to France in Paris 13 days ago.

"I think every single time you're playing you want to put in a huge performance for your country,” Fogarty said on Thursday following Ireland’s captain’s run session at the Aviva. 

“I'm sure Wales won't be happy with the results they've had but, for us, we're disappointed with some parts of the performance in France. For us, there's a lot of motivation, we're playing at home, there's a huge amount of excitement to be able to go out and perform in front, well not in front of, but for our home crowd.

"Certainly, they'll be motivated but we'll certainly match any motivation because this is so important as a group. We're developing as a group and like I said there's a huge amount of excitement to get out there and play.” 

The Ireland assistant coach added: “Any time there is a competition, the mindset going into it, as a group of players, as individuals, as a group of coaches, the mindset is always going to be that we want to win it.

“But how we develop performance, how we grow as a group, players getting opportunities throughout the competition. These are things that are built into our minds with this competition as well. It is a competition we want to win but also a competition we want to find out about ourselves. That is all built into it.” 

Fogarty outlined the improvements on the performance in the 35-27 defeat to France the Irish management will want to see from a side showing seven changes from the one which started in Paris.

“There were a lot of good things about the game. Small parts around our communication at times; when we put ourselves in good areas, how we take those moments. So as coaches you learn as much as players along the way, how we can prepare for games, how we can build a little bit of pressure into the week so that we are ready to take opportunities when the time comes.

“The other part then is how the players communicate to each other during the week so that again by the weekend we are nice and clear with what we are doing and we are able to execute."