Tadhg Beirne: Scotland have 'given us ammo' in the past

BEIRNE BABY BEIRNE: Tadhg Beirne during a media day. Pic Credit: Dan Sheridan, Inpho.

Ireland’s beef with England is historic and eternal.

Any souring of relations with Wales for a time can be traced back to the IRFU’s ruthless dismissal of Warren Gatland and the Kiwi’s willingness to stir the pot over the years since.

Then there’s Scotland. Talk of any rivalry is overblown given Ireland’s utter dominance in the last decade. They have won 13 of the last 14 meetings across Six Nations, Autumn Nations, World Cups and a World Cup warm-up. Scotland’s sole success was in 2017.

The impression on this side of the North Channel sea is of a Celtic cousin that too often bigs itself up and ultimately fails to deliver. Ironic, they may say, given events in Twickenham last week, but it’s a view confirmed by the Netflix: Full Contact series aired earlier this year.

In the documentary, Scotland coach Gregor Townsend claimed that the Irish players and media felt them to be soft, a 60-minute side that would tail off in the last quarter. The head coach challenged his players to prove all that to be tosh in Murrayfield.

Stuart Hogg, since retired, chimed in with a more bullish contribution.

“We’re due these fuckers one,” said the star full-back after defeats of England and Wales and a loss to France.

“We’re going to lift the Triple Crown, and have a shit-tonne of fun doing it, so let’s fucking go for it.”

Well, we know how that went. Scotland put it up to Ireland in the first-half but the visitors absorbed all that and the loss of key players in key positions – remember Josh van der Flier throwing into the lineout? – to pull away and win a 22-7 game at their ease.

Seven months later and they destroyed Scotland in the World Cup. Tadhg Beirne watched that Netflix doc. Was he surprised by anything he heard?

“Not really, no. The Scots are the Scots. We have our perception of them and I'm not going to verbalise it here because they've given us ammo in the past from what they've said in the media, and I would be surprised if it was any different this week.

Tadhg Beirne is interviewed by Michael Corcoran of RTÉ during an Ireland rugby media conference at the IRFU High Performance Centre at the Sports Ireland Campus in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

“But we're going to focus on ourselves because we didn't put in a performance against England that we're happy with. We know we're a lot better than that.

“So this week is all about getting that right, and getting back to our best, showing the Irish people the performance we can and hopefully give them something to cheer about.”

There’s no need to flag this as some verbal beat-down. Beirne was diplomacy personified at other points, playing up the manner in which the Scots troubled Ireland for spells in that last Edinburgh meeting 12 months ago, and pointing out that they have another Triple Crown tilt to spur them on this weekend.

Like Ireland, who lost to England by a point last Saturday, Townsend’s side are recovering their equilibrium this week as they come to terms with a dispiriting defeat to Italy at the Stadio Olimpico. Same old Scots, then?

“The only people who will be writing them off is the media. We certainly won’t be.”

For Beirne personally, this holds the potential to be one of the great days, even if that back-to-back Grand Slam is beyond their reach, given he was sidelined with injury this time last year as Andy Farrell’s squad ended a perfect campaign with a defeat of England in Dublin.

The Munster forward actually played the first two games of that Championship before being ruled out but he has been superb through most of this campaign and there is the carrot of a 50th cap and a Six Nations title to be claimed in the days to come.

Some going for a man who only debuted at the age of 26.

“Yeah, it really is huge for me. Something, at 21/22, one [cap] would have been a miracle for me but then obviously after you get your first it's then about getting your second and then it's about your third. So 50 seemed like a long way away.”

His parents are in New York for Paddy’s Day so they won’t get to share the occasion with him, but his wife, two sisters and a posse of aunts and uncles will be on hand to celebrate if Scotland are seen off and another title can be safely tucked away.

“If you were saying the public are disappointed and fans are disappointed that it’s not a Grand Slam, that’s also credit to this team and the expectations that we’ve created for the fans, that that’s where they have us.

“But that was our goal at the start of the campaign. Were we disappointed after the game? Of course we were, we’re devastated but an opportunity to win the Six Nations back-to-back is a massive opportunity for us and we’re unbelievably excited.”