Can you compare this Irish side to England's 2003 team?

There is understandable hesitancy in the Ireland camp to draw to many comparisons with the 2003 Grand Slam and World Cup winners.

SHARING KNOWLEDGE: Ireland assistant coach Mike Catt and Jonathan Sexton during an Ireland Rugby open training session at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

First Grand Slam in Dublin? Not if you were a member of Martin Johnson’s England side in 2003, when the World Cup winners in waiting completed a Six Nations clean sweep at Lansdowne Road in a 42-6 rout, dismantling the home side’s similar ambitions in the process.

It was a game that will be forever remembered for “Carpetgate” when English captain Johnson led his side out onto the field ahead of the national anthems and turned when he maintains was an innocent mistake into a diplomatic incident, refusing to switch to the traditional half of the pitch where the visitors usually stood and forcing Irish President Mary McAleese off the red carpet and onto the playing surface in her heels.