Six Nations: Warren Gatland ready to start the party as Wales take aim at Ireland with Grand Slam on the line

Wales boss wants to beat his former team out of jealousy at what they achieved in 2018 to give Welsh rugby something to cheer about

Wales will bid for Grand Slam glory in Cardiff fuelled by what head coach Warren Gatland admits has been jealousy of Ireland’s remarkable achievements over the last year.

After a gritty 18-11 victory over Scotland, Wales are now 13 matches unbeaten and have moved to within just one win from a first Six Nations clean sweep since 2012.

Standing in their way are Ireland – Gatland’s former side. Joe Schmidt’s outfit might have been unconvincing in the championship to date, but their Grand Slam last year was followed by a famous November win over back-to-back world champions New Zealand. In 2018 leading Irish province Leinster also claimed a Guinness Pro14 and European Champions Cup double.

Gatland said: “We respect Ireland hugely for what they have achieved.

“They are No 2 in the world and their provinces have had a lot of success in the Pro14 and in Europe and sometimes it can breed a jealousy. You respect them, but you are desperate to beat them.

“That sometimes creates the edge. A lot of it stems from that. They have been incredibly successful and we have got to strive to do that.

“That creates competition. It is almost like a derby-type feeling. I know our group of players get incredibly motivated to play against Ireland. They want to beat them because a lot of them have been on the losing end on a number of occasions, particularly to their provincial teams.”

Wales downed Scotland thanks to first-half tries from Josh Adams and Jonathan Davies and a remarkable defensive performance after the break which saw them make a total of 194 tackles.

Cardiff is now preparing for what Wales hope will be the biggest of all parties.

Victory for Wales on Saturday would make Gatland the first Six Nations coach to win three Grand Slams and his team have been boosted by a positive injury update on full-back Liam Williams.

Warren Gatland wants to emulate Ireland's success by leading Wales to a Grand Slam (Reuters)

“It is going to be chaotic. We get the chance to play at home and there won’t be any lack of motivation for these players because they get to do something special,” Gatland said.

“There is no doubt against England we were right on top of our game mentally and we need to be like that this week.

“The challenge for Ireland is they have a team with some older and experienced players. They are often the most dangerous because there is always a big match in an experienced team. You don’t always get as much consistency, but when it really matters they can turn on that big performance.”

Wales are on a fine run, but they are yet to string together an 80-minute display and their Scotland win came on the back of a chaotic week of Welsh rugby politics off the field.

Liam Williams could feature against Ireland despite going off injured on Saturday (Getty)

A proposed merger between the country’s two best teams – Scarlets and Ospreys – was on the verge of completion last week before the idea was dramatically abandoned.

“It has been an interesting week,” said Wales and Ospreys wing George North.

“Ireland are a quality team who have come to Cardiff before and done a job on us. We have only got a short turnaround so it's full steam ahead for Saturday now.

“Ireland have had a similar sort of tournament to us. They've shown great glimpses, but also not had consistency. They are still dogging it out. It makes the last game very interesting.”