3. JOSH VAN DER FLIER GUTTED TO MISS OUT ON THE GRAND SLAM DREAM
Heading into the 2024 Six Nations, Ireland had the goal of becoming history makers. As it has been well documented over the passed few weeks, no side in history has won back-to-back Grand Slams in the modern Six Nations era. We will have to continue to wait for a nation to achieve this accolade, as England ruined Ireland’s plans of immortalisation.
Ireland back-row Josh van der Flier spoke after the match, and expressed his disappointment to miss out on the second consecutive Grand Slam. The flanker had an excellent performance at Twickenham, in what made the last-ditch defeat all the more frustrating.
“No, it’s pretty disappointing. The dream of every team every year in Six Nations is to be on for a Grand Slam and that was obviously the overriding goal but to win a championship is close to as good. I’ll have to get over that now, as a team we’ll review it. That normally helps a good bit, once you have it reviewed, you go through your mistakes and then it’s just ramping it up for Scotland. Reminder that you are up there to be taken down.
“It’s definitely a part of it, it’s sport at the end of the day as well. Over the last few years we seem to have always come out on the right side of those games with the exception of a couple so, yeah, it’s the way sport can go. We’ll have to be better towards the end of the games and throughout to not get it to that stage. Credit to England and we move on.”
4. GEORGE FURBANK LEADS THE WAY AS ENGLAND’S NEW FULLBACK
George Furbank has continued on with his impressive form, that has seen him surpass Freddie Steward to the be England’s go-to fullback in recent weeks. Furbank returned to the starting spot for England’s third round trip to Scotland, and marked the occasion with a try in the early goings of the match.
The Northampton Saints man followed this up with a try against Ireland, and an all-round solid outing against the side who many consider to be the best in the world. Speaking after the match, Furbank expressed how it felt ‘surreal’ to be apart of the match, and the processes that England stuck with to achieve the victory.
“It feels a bit surreal, to be honest. But it was an unbelievable game. We spoke about sticking in the fight and putting what we wanted to on the pitch and I think we showed that and we did that really well.”
“Those close games are almost more satisfying, aren’t they? Obviously, Marcus hits the drop (goal) to win it but I was on the floor at the time, so I didn’t really know what was going on. But I heard the crowd and that gave me the sign that we’d won the game. I didn’t know what to feel at the time. I was just pretty exhausted but elated at the same time.”
“We spoke in the week about adding tempo to our game and playing what’s in front of us and being brave, making good decisions. I think we did that up until up until the 80th minute there. We almost scored a try three or four times leading up to that passage and Marcus then just sat in the pocket and banged over a drop goal, like he does.”
“I was very happy obviously to be picked again and it’s nice to get a couple of games in a row. I’ve got some very strong competition in Fred (Steward), who’s being class for the 30-odd games that he’s paid for England and he’s incredibly consistent. So I know I’ve got to be at my best to keep that jersey. That probably wasn’t there against Scotland but I’m glad he stuck with me and I felt a bit more comfortable going into this game”