Irish captain Caelan Doris said that external negativity never threatened their internal positivity as Andy Farrell's side got their Six Nations campaign back on track in devastating style against England.
After being torn apart in France and failing to fire in their narrow win over Italy, expectations were low for Ireland heading to Twickenham. In the end, a 41-21 victory followed – Ireland's biggest-ever win at the home of English rugby.
"A lot of that has been external, internal it’s been a pretty good feeling in camp," Doris told RTÉ Sport of the discourse surrounding an apparent decline in Irish rugby.
"There’s been awareness that there’s been growth needed but also an awareness that there’s a lot of belief at the core of what we’re doing."
"I’ve been saying there’s been belief at the core of what we’ve been doing and we’ve seen some of that in training," Doris also said.
"It hasn’t fully come to fruition in games but we saw more of that today. Definitely a pleasing performance, I feel it gets us back on track a little bit but two big games still to come (against Wales and Scotland) obviously."
Caelan Doris says it felt like there were more Irish than English supporters in Twickenham and explains that the negativity around Ireland's form was 'external'.
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In terms of what the win signifies, Doris said the result will provide their second notable signpost of the campaign – but for a very different reason.
"I spoke about Paris being a reference point from where we need to see a steep incline in terms of performances; hopefully this will be a reference point we look back on as another game that’s built more belief for the squad."
Despite expectations of an English backlash after their 12-game winning streak came to an end against Scotland last week, a huge, and vocal, Irish crowd was present at Twickenham. For Doris, it made an impact.
"It’s a special feeling, we could see and feel the Irish from the very start from the anthems.
"It felt like there was more of them than English here today and they carried us through."
Player of the match Jamison Gibson-Park was pleased with the response, something of the old Ireland in evidence, and on that he said: "We were challenged a bit after our first outing against France and it wasn't something we were overly proud of. We saw a bit of that today.
"We're brave and we love to put the ball in space and let the guys on the edge do special things. I don't know whether we've gone way from that a little bit.
"I count myself very lucky to be part of this team and it was unbelievable to be out there with the lads. It was a performance we can be proud of because it's unbelievably difficult to come to Twickenham and do that. We're pretty happy and will share a few beers tonight."
