In the most dramatic fashion, Ireland claimed its first back-to-back 6 Nations championship since 1949 last weekend.

Victory over Scotland on Saturday afternoon set up a scenario whereby England needed to beat France by 26 points to clinch the title from the Irish.

They fell just short, and afterwards, in a largely empty and dark Murrayfield Stadium, Paul O’Connell and Ireland collected the cup and the accolades that go with it.

Ballyhooly native, Mike Ross, played a pivotal role in securing the championship for Ireland, and in the aftermath of Sunday’s excitement he spoke to The Avondhu about how it feels to have claimed his second 6 Nations medal.

“Pretty good, it’s not something I’d have anticipated a couple of years ago but certainly having two championship medals in my back pocket is a good feeling.”

As England were making light working of turning over the French for try after try, Ross set the scene in the Irish camp: “Torture, it was horrible. Every time the French scored everybody was cheering and every time the English scored everyone had their head in their hands.

“Especially in the last play of the game when they won the penalty, everyone was going bananas thinking they’re just going to kick it out and the next thing they’ve tapped and went again, everyone was screaming.

“As long as France kept hitting them back it was okay, we were doing a running points total of how much England would need to score to win. Certainly with six points left and five points to go it was pretty nerve racking.”

For a championship labelled by some as boring, the three games last Saturday kicked to touch any suggestion that rugby had lost some of its entertainment value.

“It came down to the circumstances too, with Wales putting up a huge score in Rome it threw down a gauntlet to everybody, that they had to go out and play,” said Ross.

“You cant always go out and play sevens, you have to be careful about how you do it because, as England found out, if you’re too loose with your defence that’s just as bad.”

With the dust of the 6 Nations settling, eyes now shift to the World Cup, which kicks off in London in September. For Ross and Ireland, preparations are already underway.

“There’s a game against the Barbarians on May 28, then we’re into pre-season, there’s four warm-up games for that. The squad will get thinned down at that stage so it will be quite hectic over the next few months,” he said.

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