Six Nations 2024: ‘Cohesive Wales will be a big test for in-form Ireland’ – Rob Herring column

Being injured and missing out is never fun, but seeing Ireland play so well is helping me enjoy the Six Nations as much as possible.

For Ireland, the Italy game was all about backing up a great performance against France. And by holding the Italians scoreless, that was certainly achieved.

The first two games went exactly according to plan for Ireland. Having momentum in the Six Nations is so important, but it gets tougher again from here.

‘Gatland’s sides are always competitive’

We have been together for a while as a squad but Wales are certainly more in transition. They have lost a lot of senior players and Warren Gatland obviously picked a young squad to give some guys opportunities at this level.

In saying that, they have looked very cohesive to me, especially for a group of players who are still getting to know each other. They’ve impressed in defence, and have made it difficult for teams to attack them while showing a lot of character.

Wales have an in-form back row, too. With guys like Tommy Reffell and Aaron Wainwright consistently among their best performers, I think that’s going to be a fascinating battle, especially when you look at the pedigree of the players we have there at the moment.

If Wales had started stronger against Scotland, they could have easily been on the other side of the result. The same with the England game.

Gatland is a great coach. He has bags of experience and any Welsh team he puts out is really competitive. They should never be underestimated. But if Ireland perform as well as we did in the first two games, I’m confident that we can deliver another positive result.

Ireland have just looked so in sync so far. This year’s team is very similar to last year and you have guys like Jack Crowley and Joe McCarthy slotting seamlessly into the set-up even though they don’t have a lot of Test experience.

When Ireland are attacking, there are threats everywhere: there’s a tip-pass option, an inside ball, a show-and-go from the forwards. There are good strike runners and the backs link in with them.

When we do it right, it’s really hard for other teams to defend because the defenders are pretty much guessing. That was evident in the Italy game in how clinical our attack looked.

It was good to see a bit of rotation and other guys getting a go against Italy. I thought Stuart McCloskey had an unbelievable game and was involved in creating tries, almost out of nothing.

We made six changes to the starting team and it shows the whole understanding of the squad, of how we want to play. For a lot of teams, making six changes would cause disruption, but you can see the whole squad buy-in.

That’s down to good coaching, as well as players not only fully understanding their roles, but also taking ownership of them.

‘We’re good at parking Grand Slam talk’

The Grand Slam is obviously Ireland’s north star again this year. Winning it last year gave the team confidence because we were tested in so many different ways but constantly found solutions.

I’m pretty sure the guys will have spoken about the Slam and not let it become the elephant in the room. It will have been addressed. That is the goal after all. But once it’s addressed, the guys are good at saying “right, we have spoken about it, now let’s focus on the next game”.

I know that sounds like a cliche, but that truly is how it’s approached with this squad: next moment, next game, focused.

I haven’t spoken to the guys about it, but I know they will have touched on it and then parked it. Because it was achieved last year, you are more comfortable speaking about things like that.

We discussed winning the Grand Slam before the tournament last year because we were determined to set down a marker in a World Cup year.

It’s maybe unrealistic for some teams to be talking about Grand Slams, but last year we really felt like we were in a good place to do it, and I feel like we can do it again this year.

Other teams may have something to say about that, of course. We still have to go to Twickenham, which is never easy, while Scotland have looked really good and will be a big test in Dublin on the final weekend.

But for now, I know every Irish player will be solely focused on Wales. We have a strong record at home against Wales and if Ireland play to their potential, like they did in the first two games, I’m confident that can continue on Saturday.

Rob Herring was speaking to BBC Sport NI’s Matt Gault