Former Ireland scrumhalf Tomas O’Leary believes that the prospect of completing their third ever Six Nations Grand Slam will be playing on the minds of the Irish team.
Joe Schmidt’s side face Scotland on Saturday, having won all three of their games just so far in this campaign and they sit atop the Six Nations table.
A win over Scotland would set up a final day showdown with England with Ireland then having the chance of winning what would be their first Grand Slam since 2009, with the first coming in 1948.
O’Leary was part of that 2009 Grand Slam team that beat Wales in the Millenium Stadium on the final day of the campaign and he believes that thoughts of setting up a similar decider will be building within the Irish squad.
"It’s always in the back of your mind, especially when you get down to the second last game," he told RTÉ Sport.
"If can get over the fixture, you have a shootout. We had Wales and obviously the lads will have England next weekend but it’s always in the back of your mind.
"The players constantly churn out ‘next game, next game’ to the media and you have to pay respect to Scotland and not look beyond that if you’re a player but the Grand Slam is definitely in the back of your mind."
O’Leary is taking nothing for granted however and is wary of the threat that Scotland will present, particularly after their stunning victory over England last time out.
"They’ve quite a few very dangerous players in their back line," he said. "Obviously Stuart Hogg, while he hasn’t been in sensational form this year, he’s very dangerous.
"On the wings [Sean] Maitland in particular is a great finisher and obviously Huw Jones is a great finisher, with two tries in the last day against England, I think he has 10 tries in his 14 caps."
The former Munster man sees areas within the Irish set-up that need to be addressed, including their problems out wide, but he remains confident that Joe Schmidt’s side can get the better of the Scots at the Aviva Stadium.
"In the Italy game and our last game with Wales we conceded a lot of tries so there’s a little bit of cause for concern there but the counter side is our attack play has been very, very good.
"Particular attention has been paid to Jacob Stockdale on the wing and his defensive reads and that’s probably an area he needs to get a bit better at but I wouldn’t have too many causes for concern this weekend."
Follow Ireland v Scotland on Saturday (KO 2.15pm) via the live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the News Now App, or listen live on RTÉ Radio 1, with commentary from Michael Corcoran and Donal Lenihan.
