Six Nations<\/a> title contention with two rounds still to play.<\/p>\nItaly in Rome are the next assignment and Earl, who will win his 50th cap at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday, believes England are ready to emerge from the ruins of another disappointing championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the weeks where boys have a little glint in their eye. They mean business,\u201d the British and Irish Lions back row said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at some of the big guys in our squad and go \u2018something good is coming\u2019. We\u2019re all hoping that is going to materialise on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s come from within. If we\u2019re being honest, there\u2019s been some challenge from within the playing group. A few of us had a meeting last Wednesday and we\u2019ve stripped it bare.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are people in the squad who don\u2019t feel like they\u2019ve pulled their weight or performed well enough. Some people have come forward and said they need to be a lot better at this or have been a bit off on that.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you get that out there, it\u2019s about how you move forward. There\u2019s no point sulking about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully it\u2019s something we can look back on again when we play more big games over the next 18 months and we can say \u2018I won\u2019t forget those conversations\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to say it\u2019s a turning point and I don\u2019t want to downplay it. But it\u2019s another big moment on our journey \u2013 what\u2019s happened over the past couple of weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis team has always performed well when it\u2019s been challenged from within and from outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether the result comes on Saturday or not is kind of indifferent for us, it\u2019s about the feeling within the group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ireland play down Triple Crown talk<\/p>\n
Assistant coach Paul O\u2019Connell insists Ireland will not be sidetracked by talk of a potential Triple Crown following the jubilation of a historic win over England.<\/p>\n
Andy Farrell\u2019s side return to Guinness Six Nations action at home to winless Wales on Friday evening after celebrating a record 42-21 victory at Twickenham in round three.<\/p>\n
Ireland, who retain an outside chance of winning the championship title, will then take on Scotland in Dublin on Saturday, March 14.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think particularly after a good result against England, you just want to focus on the next game and the next thing, and even the next training session really is what the lads were talking about,\u201d O\u2019Connell told reporters on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s only about getting better from the last performance, even though it was a good result.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of things we have to improve on and that\u2019s been the sole focus. We haven\u2019t discussed trophies or silverware or anything like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe might. I think we always come into a campaign trying to win it and we don\u2019t shy away from it. I\u2019m sure Andy has a meeting tomorrow, he might mention it, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally, the focus for us as coaches and players has just been about getting set for the Welsh game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following an emphatic 36-14 opening defeat in France and an unconvincing 20-13 home win over Italy, Ireland silenced their critics with an outstanding performance in south-west London.<\/p>\n
Wales slipped to an agonising 26-23 loss to Scotland before the rest week in the tournament and have suffered 14 successive Six Nations defeats.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the week off was good for us, probably came at a good time, three weeks in after a win, it gives you a chance to reflect as you head into the next game,\u201d said forwards coach O\u2019Connell.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the group that will play this weekend, I think they will be very hungry to produce a similar and better performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bundee Aki has bolstered Farrell\u2019s squad following his four-match suspension for \u201cverbal abuse and disrespect\u201d towards match officials.<\/p>\n
Fellow centre Robbie Henshaw and versatile back Jimmy O\u2019Brien have recovered from injuries to also join the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s great, he\u2019s a brilliant personality to have around the place,\u201d O\u2019Connell said of Aki\u2019s return to camp. \u201cHe trained quite well today and it just adds to the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to have that leadership, that kind of personality around the place, helping guys, talking to guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Head coach Farrell will name his team for the Wales match on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here are you rugby headlines on Tuesday, March 3. Wales to stick with midfield strategy Wales look set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,43326,101,56,54,55,9015],"class_list":["post-455738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-six-nations","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wales-rugby-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}