Ireland's ambitions and abilities reach far beyond a mere Triple Crown

Ireland's Johnny Sexton gives a thumbs up to the crowd after the Guinness Six Nations match at Twickenham Stadium, London.

The Triple Crown isn’t to everyone’s taste. A prized catch throughout the last century, it exists as an anachronism in the modern Six Nations and its prominence in this week’s pre-match discussions is little more than a red herring in the context of an Ireland team with ambitions far beyond its limited reach.

There are a few reasons for its return to the spotlight just now.

Ireland haven’t claimed silverware at home on the last day of the Championship since the same ‘prize’ was earned back in 2004 when the Scots were undone at Lansdowne Road. There was no trophy to raise that day, incidentally. It was another two years before that was minted for this otherwise random hat-trick of wins.

The last time Ireland had the opportunity to play for anything concrete on home soil on the final day was a dozen years ago when Dan Parks produced a kicking class and spoiled not just Irish hopes of a Triple Crown but rugby’s farewell to Croke Park ahead of the national team’s return to the newly-built Aviva Stadium.

It was only inevitable then that Johnny Sexton, veteran skipper and talisman of Andy Farrell’s Ireland, but a new kid on Declan Kidney’s block back then, should have been asked yesterday for his memories of that latter day when this Saturday's opponents pulled through.

“I remember some parts of the game,” he said. “I remember the stand-off over the penalty. Deccy was trying to take me off to get ROG on to take the kick. I nailed the kick and ran back to my position as if I wasn't going to come off.”

The odds are that France will round up this year’s tournament with a win against England in Saint-Denis, claim a Championship and a Grand Slam in the process, and render moot whatever it is that transpires in Dublin earlier in the day.

If France slip up, fantastic. Whatever the end result, the onus is on Andy Farrell’s side to put their best foot forward and, Triple Crown be damned, engineer the kind of complete performance that has been beyond them so far this spring.

The scoreboard didn’t do justice to the win over Wales, France had them on a sticky wicket for 45 minutes, 13 Italians caused far too much trouble and 14 Englishmen had them under the cosh for an hour last week: there is more in them.

This is not to be unduly pessimistic or over-critical.

Ireland’s defence has been exceptional, with just three tries conceded to date, but there have been issues at the ruck in their last three games and, against Italy and England, a sense that they are still learning when and how to utlilise their heads-up attacking game.

Sexton accepted as much and he was right to argue that it can only be encouraging for Ireland to be working their way through such glitches while sitting second in the table. Get that attack purring for longer and the sky could be the limit.

“You don't want any grey area,” Sexton said. “We know when we should and shouldn't be doing it, that's the balancing act. The good teams versus the great teams, it's those decisions: in the heat of battle, being able to decide when to throw or not throw the pass. That's where we have room for growth.”

This is the crux of it for this Ireland team. There is greatness in them and it looks within reach.

It seems almost daft to be picking holes in their play given the 20 tries scored is six more than the French, the same as Wales managed in winning the title in 2021 and on a par with Ireland’s own haul when claiming the Grand Slam four years ago.

Again, this is a good thing. These are the standards the team and everyone else is holding them to and Sexton inadvertently highlighted the elevated expectations involved when referencing the game’s most efficient proponents when it comes to a varied and fluid attacking threat.

“You think of New Zealand over the years when they had their dominance, they were just so good at taking their opportunities. They were so clinical. They wouldn’t be in the game and ‘bang’, before you know it, two tries and you are going, ‘how do they do that?’

“So that is the room for growth for us, is being able to take those.”