Grand Slam opportunities do not come along very often so Joe Schmidt has urged his Ireland team to give it everything when they travel to England next week.
After beating Scotland in Dublin on Saturday 28-8, Ireland then clinched the 2018 NatWest 6 Nations when England were beaten away in Paris by France, 22-16.
Having already seen off France, thanks to that memorable Johnny Sexton drop goal, Italy and Wales, Ireland have now got four from four in the Championship.
But now they have the chance to win only the third Grand Slam in their history when they travel to Twickenham next week for Super Saturday, looking to follow in the footsteps of the Irish teams of 1948 and 2009.
And Schmidt has urged his players to seize the opportunity that presents itself to them.
Speaking to Official Irish NatWest 6 Nations broadcaster TV3, Schmidt said: “We’ll be excited for sure to get to Twickenham to get the chance we have. You don’t get it very often so we certainly won’t be holding back.
“It’s special because we won it at home. It’s bizarre again because we’ve won it in our suits watching a game we didn’t have any control over but we managed to control enough of the things we were involved in to get 19 points on the table that we needed.
“It was a great performance from France, I thought they made it really tough for England to get any fluidity.
“We’ll have a look at England now and try to strike out again next week. We were up in the dinner (when the title was confirmed), I was with Gregor Townsend.
“I’m really going to enjoy tonight, I’ve given the players the day off tomorrow.
“I think there were over 300 tackles in this game. They are fatigued.”
