Heady days but room to improve on England display

Ireland won the Grand Slam on Saturday evening but, in truth, and by their own standards, they limped towards it in the end.

Their dominance of the tournament was almost complete, accumulating 24 out of a possible 25 points along the way. And if it weren't for one fatigue-laden pass from James Ryan, Ireland could have had a perfect score, only just missing out on the bonus point against Scotland.

Nobody came close to Ireland realistically, although there were some nervy moments along the way. Tight half-time scorelines against Scotland and England will soon be forgotten, trumped by the detail that no team came within a score of Ireland on the way to their first Grand Slam win in Dublin and only their fourth ever.

Victory in the Six Nations in a World Cup year and domination of the world rankings has put a target on their back.

The southern hemisphere teams are waiting in the long grass for Ireland and they’ll be planning their strategies around how best to disrupt the Irish gameplan during their preparations for the World Cup.

There are nervous whispers of Ireland peaking too soon because Irish people aren’t used to being the frontrunners, but Andy Farrell is attempting to change that mindset.

If Ireland go on to disappoint in the World Cup, it won’t be because they were too successful in the Six Nations. Building confidence, resilience and gaining a psychological edge against opponents can hardly be seen as a negative.

If you watched Ireland last weekend and surmised that they had peaked, you would be setting a low standard for this team.

Maybe it was due to nerves, or maybe there’s just more to come from them, but Ireland were far from their best in the Aviva on Saturday evening.

Perhaps it was the occasion, or the expectations