Ireland prop Andrew Porter says defeat by France in the Six Nations last weekend has given the Irish added incentive to perform as they know they can in their concluding Six Nations game against Italy.
The championship is now out of Ireland’s hands as they must beat Italy in Rome and hope that the results of the games which follow on Saturday go their way.
Second-placed England are away to Wales while leaders France have their destiny in their own hands as they face Scotland in Paris in the final match of this year’s tournament.
“We have to take our learnings from that defeat but the fortunate thing for us was it wasn’t our last game and we can look forward to a huge test over in Rome.
“We can sit around and sulk all we like but we have another job to do next Saturday. If anything it has emboldened us to go out and put out the rugby we know we can play.”
Porter says Ireland are further encouraged by the fact that they could still secure a historic three Six Nations titles in a row.
“That’s the most exciting thing, we’re not out of the competition completely yet, it’s everything to play for this weekend.
“We’ve got Italy on their home patch, an incredibly proud team. We’ll go out there to do what we know we can do and put out a performance we can be proud of as players.
“Italy have their own threats and they’re a good outfit as well. They’re a great team at home, barring the French game. When we’ve played them over there it’s always been a fairly tough battle.”
