Six Nations 2025: Wounded Ireland aim to end tournament on a high in Italy
Ireland has greater hope for Saturday. The plan was to give the eternal city another epic backdrop for the grand slam, while the storybook ended with retired centurions Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray and Cian Healy.
In the third round, the trio’s victory over Wales certainly put them on track, just to shake France and tear the Irish plans apart.
But even if the 30,000 or so Irish fans who will fall by Stadio Olimpico near Super Saturday with a counter-climax feel, Captain Caelan Doris insists that this grim character has not penetrated the team.
“Obviously last week was very disappointing, it changed its ending nature, but for us, it was still about to end our best performance. The rest was out of control.”
“But three lads (Omahoney, Murray and Healy), their contributions, the team we have, we really want to end our best performance, which was a key theme throughout the week.
“Obviously, 24 hours and 48 hours after the game were disappointing, and seeing some clips, images and the frustration around can be tricky.
“But we quickly turned the page up and were excited about a special weekend here, and we performed best in front of 25,000 or 30,000 Ireland trips, which would be very special.”
