"Ireland no longer spin out of control without Sexton"

Stuart Barnes says this is the greatest Irish team of his lifetime. Here he details just how the Grand Slam champions went about securing a famous title in a huge rugby year

- STUART BARNES

Yet the fact was Ireland were every bit as good as the Big Two. They won their next three Six Nations games and beat the All Blacks the next autumn.

Ireland were on the move yet the shift wasn’t quite seismic enough as France beat them in Paris to claim the Grand Slam the next season. But Ireland were a different class to the rest of the opposition and bagged a Triple Crown.

This year was inevitable. Ireland and France kept beating the southern hemisphere teams, Ireland winning a series in New Zealand. Ranked the world’s two best teams, for once the ratings were right. It’s hard to say who is the better of the teams. It’s easy to say home advantage is important. In 2022 Ireland made France fight in Paris. The French would return the favour in round two of this season’s competition.

Ireland were playing a style of rugby unlike anything we have seen for a long while in this hemisphere. They were fluid, flexible, thinking on their feet throughout and they were confident. I don’t know about you but my God, my Irish friends find a way to worry. Not the team, thankfully. Farrell’s men are on another level. And they needed to have the mental strength. Pre-tournament there were some good old historical reasons to be concerned.

Wales were first up. Ireland hadn’t won a Six Nations game in Cardiff for a decade, so said my head-shaking, muttering mate, Donal. That translated as four defeats on the bounce. It’s all in the phrasing; the fans make it hard as possible, the players made it look easy. Ireland flew out of the changing rooms. By full-time Ireland were clear 34-10 with now only the French bogey to lay. France had prevailed in their previous three encounters. That 15-13 loss in 2021 is the last Irish defeat in a stadium transformed into one of the most formidable of venues for visiting teams.