'A big man can't run without legs' - physicality in Six Nations not just about brute force

Ireland face England on Saturday, a year on from the same side derailing their Six Nations Grand Slam hopes. 

OPPORTUNITY: Ireland would become the first team to win three consecutive Six Nations titles if they triumph this year. Tadhg Beirne was happy to contemplate the possibility. Pic: Ben Brady, Inpho

Ireland will return to Dublin on Wednesday to complete preparations for their Guinness Six Nations home opener against England with Tadhg Beirne not shying away from the squad’s desire for a third title in a row.

Equally, the Munster and Ireland lock stressed the necessity of at least matching English physicality when the nations collide at Aviva Stadium on Saturday or risk losing at home for the second time in five Tests.

Beirne said November’s Autumn Nations Series loss to New Zealand came as Ireland failed to reach the required physical intensity against the All Blacks and warned a similar outcome was on the cards this weekend if that failing was repeated.

“International rugby in general is a physical game,” Beirne said.

“Everything elevates, you're playing the best players in those countries and they're representing their country and we’re representing ours.

“There's emotion there, there’s the eagerness to win and the physical battle certainty rises. Some teams just have naturally larger men, whether it's in the backs or the forwards and they're able to be a bit more physical but it shouldn't stop us matching that.

“You can be physical in many ways, and there's been some games over the last year or so that we haven’t been there physically where we want to be. The New Zealand game particularly sticks out to us, in November, and they're the games you end up losing if you don't match the physical battle or surpass it."

Asked whether finding the right level of physicality was as much to do with mindset as body size, Beirne replied: “Yeah, of course, massively. You know, a big man can't run without legs.” 

Ireland’s general mindset going into this Six Nations appears to be rock solid with Beirne happy to contemplate winning a third championship in a row.

“It hasn't been done before. Whenever we come in here at the start of a championship, what's the goal? It's to come in here and win a championship, but not only win a championship, everyone wants to come in and win a Grand Slam. That's certainly the goal and that's the ultimate goal, but you know, we’ve a big hurdle in front of us each week and this week it's England so it starts there.

“As each week goes by it probably becomes more clear whether we’ve a possibility of doing that or not but it starts this Saturday.” 

REGRETS: Tadhg Beirne said Ireland did not hit the require physical pitch against the All Blacks in November. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

It has not been forgotten that Ireland’s hopes of back-to-back Grand Slams were derailed by England at Twickenham on the penultimate weekend last March but the pain subsided much quicker for Beirne than the previous October’s similarly narrow World Cup quarter-final defeat to the All Blacks at Stade de France.

“Yeah, look, Twickenham was incredibly disappointing. They took away the Grand Slam from us but we kind of took it away from ourselves with how we played in that game. That’s another game where we just weren’t there - it was disappointing.

“But the World Cup particularly lingers with you because you don’t know whether you’ll get another chance at it and you don't get to play for your country again for another a few months, if you're lucky enough to play for your country again after a World Cup.

“Whereas with England we were playing the following week and we had a chance to right some wrongs and thankfully we were able to do that.

“So it still sucks that we lost it, don't get me wrong because I’d love to be sitting here saying ‘I’m a back-to-back Grand Slam winner’ but we did have an opportunity to make ourselves feel better by winning the championship.”