Ireland swarm around England's Matt Banahan during their impressive victory in Dublin
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The Irish Times' Gerry Thornley reflects on Ireland's spectacular return to form at the expense of England in Dublin.
"Not so much the Grand Slam, more the Grand Slap. Slams don’t come easily of course, and nothing underlined that more than Ireland’s sequence of hard-earned wins in 2009. But, frankly, Saturday’s 24-8 overturning of the Chariot merely underlined what a travesty it would have been if England had emulated the class of ’03.
"What it perhaps also demonstrated is that if any team should have emulated previous Slam winners, it was Ireland. Retaining many of the core elements of their class of ’09, and adding to it, this performance finally showed what this team is capable of.
"It was probably the performance of the 2011 Six Nations, and if Ireland had sustained this kind of intensity, focus and heads-up rugby in their previous four performances, they’d have walked it."
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