Andrew Goodman: Triple Crown would be 'Huge for Ireland as a Nation'

Goodman expressed how the shot at silverware has generated quite a significant buzz around the Ireland camp, with a 'Cup Final' feel apparent amongst the men in green. Speaking at the Ireland training camp ahead of their Super Saturday clash with Scotland at the Aviva Stadium, Goodman said;

“It's what’s in our control, and that's the performance. To get a Triple Crown, which we know is a huge thing for Ireland as a nation. So we'll look after that through our process during the week, and then we'll sit back and have a good watch of the next games.”

After picking up the bonus point win under the latest Friday night lights, Ireland celebrated their 27-17 win over Wales before then watching the rest of that weekend's Six Nations action unfold. Scotland stunned France with an epic 50-40 win in an all-time Championship barn-burner, which Goodman was only delighted to witness as he side stayed in the title race.

“It was good to watch. As a rugby fan, I enjoyed watching the game, 50-40. What a score! Plenty going on. I thought they'd [Scotland] done a great job in terms of their attacking the ball to space and expressing themselves. I'm sure they'll come here with lots of belief and confidence around what they've been able to do over the last three weeks after a tough start like we had as well.”

“It's an amazing buzz [around the Ireland camp]. It's great to be part of a last week when there's plenty on the line. As you can imagine, there was some quite loud roaring for Scotland on Saturday afternoon [against France].

"It was great to sit back after getting the five points, still knowing that we didn't get the performance we were chasing down, but it creates a good edge for the week. We know there's a Triple Crown within our control, and then who knows what's going to happen the way this competition's been going.

"What a great advertisement for the game. It has to be one of the best Six Nations for a long time, with the competition week to week. So it's been great to be part of.”

Giving an assessment upon his side throughout the ongoing Championship, Goodman has enjoyed how Ireland have 'expressed themselves' on the attacking side of the ball. The New Zealander name checked the likes of Stuart McCloskey, Tommy O'Brien and Rob Baloucoune for their starring efforts with the ball in hand against England.

“On the attack, it was great to see the boys express themselves, to get the ball to space, to see Big Stu (McCloskey) at the line offloading the ball, creating for our attack, to see Jamison (Gibson-Park) running with the ball from nine, to see Robert Baloucoune using his speed – speed on speed with Tommy O'Brien.
“It was just nice to see boys expressing themselves and I suppose showing a bit of their uniqueness is what we want to encourage as coaches.”

However, the coach brought his men back down to earth, as the performance against Wales paled in comparison to the Herculean efforts against England.

“We want to try and get back to that level, but we want to use that as a benchmark that we can grow from. If you look back at the Wales performance, we weren't quite as sharp with of our work off the ball.

"That was something that was really impressive against England. We were working off the ball hard, which meant we were seeing pitches early, communicating things really well, and then off the back you execute really well. So we'll be driving that this week.”

The assistant coach expressed how the added 'edge' to training will make for some tough selection decisions, for when Andy Farrell names his match day squad this Thursday.

“What Faz [Andy Farrell] has done with the selection is created real competition within the group. If you're able to see the training today, there was that carrying on today. There'll be some good discussions with the coaches tonight. I'm sure there's going to be some really tough decisions to be made.”

Goodman added how the latest run of results has seen the Ireland players return to camp with an extra edge in training, as the competition for places heats up ahead of a Championship defining fixture.

“You can come in together back on Sunday night, Monday morning into training, and you can just feel the edge around the place. It's a nice feeling to be. It's where we all want to be. The players and the management group want to be part of these big games that have got real importance to them. There's lots of excitement, a little bit of nerves, as you can imagine, and some good edge around the place.”

Scotland head to Dublin in search of their first win over Ireland since 2017. The Emerald Islanders have taken the victory throughout the past 11 matches between the two Celtic rivals, yet Goodman pins this Scottish side as one of the best he's witnessed in recent years.

“It would be hard for me to answer that with my history, but I'd say listening to what they're saying as a group, their belief is as high as it's ever been, according to everything that's coming out of the group.

“So it should be, as I said, the way they've performed over the last three weeks, it's been good rugby. So I'm sure it'll be up there with one of the better teams that have travelled over to these shores.”