Well then, how do you follow that? You know . . . that! Emulating Troy Parrott and the Republic of Ireland’s win over Portugal at the Aviva Stadium was a tough ask. You half expected the stadium to still be vibrating for the Ireland rugby team’s Test against Australia 48 hours later. The players had admitted to taking motivation from the exploits of their footballing counterparts.
So, by extension, this should apply even more this week after the spine-tingling deeds of Parrott and co in Budapest on Sunday. Ireland are primed to face the best rugby team in the world on Saturday and, perhaps, the best team of all time.
The 46-19 win over the Wallabies at the Aviva Stadium ensured Andy Farrell’s team go into this seismic meeting with the world champions in a better place than might have been the case.
They will need to be. The Springboks are in us-against-the-world, full-metal-jacket mode.
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