Catt keen to keep emotions in check

Published date18 March 2023
"St Patrick's Day helps as all are off school, so it has fallen nicely," said attack coach Mike Catt after declaring the squad's clean bill of health. "It's brilliant having kids here because it has been a long eight weeks . . . or is it 12 weeks . . . whatever it is now since Portugal. There is a lot of sacrifice that goes in there and great to have families in."

Catt, who said that the Irish attack has functioned "in dribs and drabs" so far, acknowledged that while they are tapping into a unique set of circumstances, "as a group, we're not going to get too emotional over the whole thing. It's a game of rugby and all we're doing is chasing our potential and making sure that we can be ourselves in this environment.

"It's about you being the best version of a rugby player that you can possibly be. The atmosphere, I think you can feel the buzz in the city already, it's amazing. You want to be in games like this, you want to be part of big things like this, it's the reason we do the job and the players do their jobs. You've got to thrive in this intensity, it's brilliant.

Perfect farewell

Further tapping into the feelgood factor has been the presence in camp all week of Garry Ringrose, while a huge part of this week's narrative is, of course, the potential for a perfect Six Nations farewell from Johnny Sexton.

Catt, who himself played until he was 38, said: "Where do you start? How long have we got? Johnny is Johnny. He's...

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