{"id":348201,"date":"2026-03-15T23:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T23:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/348201\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T23:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T23:31:08","slug":"irelands-thrilling-triple-crown-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/348201\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s thrilling Triple Crown \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">If ever proof were needed of the significance <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ireland-rugby\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ireland-rugby\/\">Irish rugby<\/a> still attaches to winning the Triple Crown, the reaction of players and supporters at the conclusion of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/sport\/rugby\/2026\/03\/14\/ireland-punish-scotland-to-claim-triple-crown-in-game-for-the-ages-at-the-aviva\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/sport\/rugby\/2026\/03\/14\/ireland-punish-scotland-to-claim-triple-crown-in-game-for-the-ages-at-the-aviva\/\">Saturday\u2019s thrilling victory over Scotland<\/a> showed how much the historic honour is still valued. Capturing the ninth Irish Triple Crown since the start of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/sport\/six-nations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/sport\/six-nations\/\">Six Nations<\/a> era in 2004 was celebrated as much as any recent championship triumph. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Perhaps a little spoilt by success in recent years, the level of expectation in Irish rugby is often in danger of running ahead of itself. Saturday\u2019s hard fought but brilliant performance was a reminder of how big an achievement it is to take the scalps of our nearest neighbours. Much emphasis is now put on the build-up to the World Cup, but this year\u2019s Six Nations was a competition that will be long remembered. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">There were just six Irish Triple Crown successes in 102 years from the inception of the competition in 1883 to 1985, illustrating the long barren years Irish rugby endured. Another fruitless 19 years elapsed before Ireland\u2019s next success in 2004. Since then, Triple Crown and championship wins have been more frequent. In contrast, Scotland came to Dublin on Saturday hoping to bridge a 36-year gap since their last Triple Crown. That sobering statistic puts into perspective how difficult it is to string together the requisite three victories.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The unpredictable nature of this year\u2019s Six Nations underscored how fine a line there is between toasting success or drowning sorrows in international sport. In Ireland\u2019s case, the disappointment of the opening night defeat in Paris was quickly put to bed by a thrilling display at Twickenham, before wins over Italy and Wales set up the decider with the Scots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Saturday\u2019s victory was almost topped off in Paris a few hours later, when a reinvigorated England team came within a minute of beating France and, in turn, making Ireland the overall champions. France took the win with a dramatic penalty at the death. It was a fitting finale to one of the most exciting of Six Nations championships. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If ever proof were needed of the significance Irish rugby still attaches to winning the Triple Crown, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,1449,43,15551],"class_list":["post-348201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-news","tag-six-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}