Proud Best hails Ireland: We knew it would take a monumental effort

Ireland captain Rory Best hailed the “monumental effort” his side produced to deny England a Six Nations Grand Slam in Dublin.

England’s record-equalling streak of 18 successive Test wins was brought to an end on Saturday as Ireland produced a performance of high intensity to triumph 13-9 in a bruising encounter.

Iain Henderson scored the only try after 24 minutes and Ireland remained ahead thereafter, the tournament champions unable to pull off a fightback that would have seen them complete a second straight Slam.

“It was a really tough game,” Best told ITV Sport in an on-pitch interview. “We’re probably going to wake up tomorrow and there’ll be a lot of sore bodies.

“They’re a quality team, we knew that. You don’t come here looking for back-to-back Grand Slams – and looking for a world record – if you’re not a good outfit.

“We were trying to look at ourselves. We knew it was going to take a monumental effort to stop a team like this and it’s days like this that you have to be very proud of the boys and the way they fronted up against a quality outfit.

“They [England] are going to go and lift the trophy now and they’re deserved champions the way they’ve played this season, but we’re very happy with that win.”

.@RoryBest2: “We’re proud of the boys for fronting up against a quality outfit. They’re deserved champions but we’re happy with that win.” pic.twitter.com/RklHdtUWdM

— RBS 6 Nations (@SixNationsRugby) March 18, 2017

Ireland’s form earlier in the competition had been mixed, but they rose to the occasion to repeat the feat they achieved in 2011 by preventing England from securing a Grand Slam.

“We’ll look back on another day at aspects of this campaign we let slip by, but I think that was a lot more like us.” Best added.

“We can leave this championship proud of the effort that we had. Big occasions and big men rise to it, we had plenty of those and we just need to get a bit more consistency.”