Updated: Thursday, 05 Mar 2015 16:03 | Comments
Able deputy Tommy O'Donnell thinks Ireland must improve if they are to beat Wales next weekend in the RBS 6 Nations.
The Munster flanker stood in for Sean O'Brien for the Italy tie when the Carlow man was injured in the warm-up, and replaced the same player when he had to be withdrawn midway through the first half against England with suspected concussion.
The 27-year-old duly impressed in both games as well as scoring a try in the first.
Joe Schmidt's men now head to Cardiff knowing victory would leave them just one win away from a Grand Slam.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport after the team trained in Belfast this morning, O'Donnell said: "We just need to keep getting better, we can't hype ourselves up.
"We can't fall into the hype and listen to what people are saying.
"We know we could have played better [against England]. We know we could have probably scored one or two more tries and we have to be critical of ourselves like that.
"We've already gone over our defence – yeah, we were good but we can be better."
"Yeah, we were good but we can be better"
Wales are still in the hunt for the championship and will come in to the tie full of confidence having just beaten France in Paris.
O'Donnell says improvement is needed on Saturday week.
"They're a great team," said O'Donnell, now holder of eight caps.
"They beat France like we did so they're a quality team. They went over to France and did it which is exceptionally hard. We just have to be on top of our game and we have to approach it like it's the biggest game of the season.
"I think we thrive under pressure and we'll be ready to perform well hopefully.
"They have big ball runners and a fast sniping scrum-half so we have to be good and we have to be ready for them."
Ireland Train In Belfast
The Tipperary native has conceded he still faces a big fight to force his way into the match squad to face Wales but admitted to receiving a big Test-level confidence boost in the last few weeks.
"I suppose if you can come in off the bench straight off the warm-up, it's not going to get much harder than that," said O'Donnell.
"Coming off the bench after 20 minutes (against England), I was thinking, 'okay, I've done this before'.
"It was just a matter of slotting in and doing what I do, going about it to the best of my ability.
"I found the Italian game incredibly physical, trying to attack them.
"The English lads are big ball carriers. Maybe missing out on that first 20 minutes, that's where it might have been a lot tighter. It was physical, but it was on a par with the likes of the Italy game."
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