Conway: Essential Ireland evolve for Six Nations success

Andrew Conway knows as well as anyone that the moment Ireland start to believe they have it cracked, they're going to be in trouble.

The Munster wing won eight of his 27 caps in 2019, a year Ireland started off as world number one and ended with crushing defeats to Japan and New Zealand at the World Cup.

Prior to that, the Six Nations brought little in the way of joy for Joe Schmidt’s side, losing to England and Wales.

The team meet Wales in the opening match of this year’s renewal on Saturday week and are buoyed by impressive autumn victories over New Zealand, Argentina and Japan, a match in which the 30-year-old grabbed himself a hat-trick.

Fans and pundits alike have been enamoured by Andy Farrell’s side’s new-found style and the Dubliner insists they are a work in progress.

"We can’t be trying to do the exact same thing we did in November in the Six Nations or we are going to find out that teams have reviewed us, looked at us and it’s not going to be good enough," Conway told RTÉ Sport.

"As satisfying as a couple of months ago was, it was a couple of months ago.

"Every team has a way they are trying to play and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

"Our job is to make it work more often than not so whenever things come together, of course there is satisfaction there but it’s a fickle sport.

"We are coming off the back of some good victories but I can tell you, with a performance that isn’t up to media standard or a loss in a tough close Six Nations match, you can be full sure that there will be a few critics again.

"So we certainly won’t get ahead of ourselves and think that we’ve cultivated this specific identify or amazing culture

"We understand that it’s a week-to-week game, day-to-day, in terms of how you are