Declan Kidney dismisses talk of Irish Grand Slam

Ireland will meet England head- on in Dublin a week today with their coach, Declan Kidney, dismissing all talk of a possible Irish Grand Slam.

"I don't buy into that," he said in the aftermath of his team's winning start in Cardiff.

"That's only a myth at this stage. Look at how well England have been going – and they're firing away against Scotland just now.

"If you look at the second half today, we have an awful lot of work to do. We also have France at home and they're playing well too. And we have to go to Murrayfield as well. We lost the last time we were up there, before the World Cup."

Still, Kidney was happy at the manner in which his team held on to win by an eight-point margin yesterday, despite losing two men to the sin-bin. "Some of the defensive stuff in the second half you couldn't coach," he said. "It's either in a team or it isn't."