Ireland ignoring Grand Slam hype as they turn to Italy

A 21-point bonus-point win away to France is about as good as it gets to start a Six Nations campaign, but Jack Conan has made it clear that Ireland aren't getting sucked into talk of back-to-back Grand Slam titles just yet.

A week is a long time in rugby. This time seven days ago we were wondering how long the shadow of Ireland's World Cup quarter-final exit would hang over the side. The 38-17 thumping of France at Stade Velodrome came as a pleasant surprise.

Just a few days on from the opening-round win, Ireland are Grand Slam champions in waiting according to some pundits, even with four games still to play, including a trip to Twickenham in early March.

The back-to-back Grand Slam talk can go on all around them, but it hasn't penetrated the four walls of the IRFU training centre.

They spent three months insisting they weren't as bad as their early World Cup exit would suggest and now they insist their record win away to France isn't a true reflection on the gap between the sides.

Ireland were by far the better team over the 80 minutes in Marseille, but as Conan points out, they came up against a French side that were unusually sluggish.

"They [France] didn't attack particularly well and they didn't challenge us a whole lot, if we're really honest with ourselves," the Ireland number 8 [below] said.

On Against the Head on Monday night, Donal Lenihan suggested it had been Ireland's most complete performance since the third Test win in New Zealand in 2022, a comparison Conan was reticent to make.

"I think moments of it were that good, I don't know... it's very difficult to compare games because of different oppositions, different types of attack and D and stuff like that.

"But that performance on Friday night was a brilliant