Ireland head to Paris riding the crest of a wave after nine successive victories and a dream start to the Guinness Six Nations but winger Andrew Conway insists they can get better.
Conway helped himself to two tries in a convincing 29-7 win over defending champions Wales in Dublin in Round 1.
And with a trip to one of the Championship favourites France next up, Conway knows Ireland have a huge task ahead of them but revealed that the team have more to give.
“I think there is so much growth in the team in that we didn’t actually play that well,” he said.
“We played quite well but there’s so much more in us.
“The detail that we’ve looked at – detail even we were chatting about in the changing room afterwards – about how much better we can be is pretty clear for us to see in here.
“Obviously this weekend is going to be a different animal altogether and it’s going to be a way, way tougher match.
“It’s probably one of the most exciting places to go in the world. They are a proper good team, they are a seriously good team.
“They’ve got threats across the board, a massive pack, they are very agile as well, they’re well able to play ball.
“And then their backline speaks for itself – there’s probably 14 of them I could name that can do serious damage.
“It’s going to be an unbelievably exciting challenge and it’s something that’s going to give us a really good idea of where we’re at.”
Conway’s performance came despite not feeling great in the lead-up to the game. And the Munster winger even started to vomit during the game, hence being replaced with 20 minutes to go despite being on a hat-trick.
He explained: “I’m grand, I’m fine. I just felt a bit ‘dodge’ on Friday night. But to be honest I didn’t even think I was feeling dodgy.
“When you’re preparing for a Test match at times obviously there are nerves and it’s a big occasion, so I didn’t even realise until I started puking.
“I think what happens is you use your mind to not allow it in, you just convince yourself that you are feeling fine, you don’t say it to anyone, unless you’re really struggling.
“Once I got one out of me, it wasn’t going to stop until I was empty, so probably a wise decision to get me off because if the ball came down my way at one stage, I wouldn’t have been much use.”
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