Andrew Trimble and Gordon D’Arcy celebrate Ireland’s win over England |
Andrew Trimble has revealed that Paul O’Connell’s rousing words played an important part in Ireland’s convincing Six Nations win over England in Dublin.
“Paul is massively motivated and that inspiration filtered through to the rest of the team,” said Trimble.
“We wanted to get everything right technically, but we also wanted to get our physicality, our intensity, everything, right, just a real hatred.
“We were unbelievably motivated to stop them winning the Grand Slam.”
All the frustrations of Ireland’s troubled Six Nations campaign were taken out on England, whose Grand Slam hopes were extinguished with a comprehensive 24-8 defeat at the Aviva Stadium.
It was a stunning result that Trimble believes was triggered by a call to arms from Lions captain O’Connell in the build-up to the match.
“I always love listening to O’Connell during England week,” said Trimble.
“He’s always got something special to say and it always has the desired effect.
“I knew it was coming – I was thinking ‘he’s going to say something class’ and he did. He never lets you down during an England week.
“I can’t give too much away about exactly what he said and I’d be paraphrasing so I couldn’t do him justice. It was very inspirational though.”
The result extended Ireland’s winning sequence against their Six Nations rivals to seven victories in eight meetings, yet Trimble insists England’s scalp remains as precious as ever.
Shontayne Hape is tackled by Paul O’Connell during Ireland’s win over England |
“Everybody’s massively motivated against England – we never get sick of beating them and that’s why we enjoyed the win so much.
“There’s a lot of history there and everyone in the team wants to beat them.
“Every team wants to beat England and we’re no exception.”
Meanwhile Jonathan Sexton says he is “good friends” with fellow Ireland fly-half Ronan O’Gara despite the pair enjoying fierce rivalry for the number 10 shirt.
Sexton got the nod ahead of O’Gara for Saturday’s game and the Leinster star played a pivotal role in a convincing Irish win.
“We’re good friends now, though we probably didn’t get off to the best of starts,” said Sexton.
“I’m sure we’ll be back killing each other in two weeks’ time when we play Munster at Thomond Park, but we’re great friends right now building towards the World Cup.
“We have a good laugh about the talk over who’s the Irish number 10 – we’re fully aware that when one plays well, the others get criticised.
“That’s not how it should work but I’ve learnt a lot in that respect over the last few weeks. You mature from it.
“There’s a lot of support out there for Ronan and he deserves it after what he’s done for Munster and Irish rugby.
“I’ll have to put in a few more performances like that to get the support he’s had.”
