No 'pats on the back' for Ireland yet - Beirne
· Yahoo Sports
Tadhg Beirne insists Ireland must remain focused as attention shifts to Friday's Six Nations game with Wales in Dublin (20:10 GMT) following last week's record away win over England.
With the tournament's fallow week offering time for teams to regroup, the 34-year-old said Ireland's mindset is firmly fixed on improvement rather than just reflection.
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"A better performance against Wales is what we'll be chasing," said the Munster forward.
"You can't just pat yourselves on the back and think it's going to happen again. You have to focus on what went well, bank it, and then also focus on what to improve on.
"There's no point saying that was a good performance, we'll just do it again next week. It doesn't work like that. You have to work incredibly hard to get those performances and it'll be no different next week.
"We don't want to just put in a good performances, we want to get better and that's the challenge."
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Ireland produced one of their best performances under head coach Andy Farrell to secure a thumping 42-21 win over England.
However, Beirne says he is expecting a stern challenge from Wales, who were denied a first Six Nations win since 2023 by Scotland in a close encounter in Cardiff last week.
"Wales, much like us, are improving game on game," said the British and Irish Lion.
"A lot of the scorelines against the teams they've played against have probably not painted them in the best picture in terms of how well they played in parts of those games.
"They're chasing better 80-minute performances and they were very close to getting the win against Scotland. I think that performance will give them a lot of confidence coming in against us.
"We'll have a little bit of a focus on Wales but as I said, our focus is on us getting better each game and we'll be ready for their improving performances as well."
Welsh rugby crisis 'incredibly sad'
Beirne won a league title with Scarlets before joining Munster in 2018 [Getty Images]Friday's fixture carries personal resonance for Beirne. A two-year spell with the Scarlets proved transformative in his career, leading to his Ireland debut and a move to Munster in 2018.
Having won the Pro12 title with the Llanelli-based region in 2017, Beirne says he is "incredibly sad" to see current plans to cut the number of Welsh professional sides from four to three.
"There's probably two or three players still there from when I was there – a big change in the guard," he said.
"I haven't really spoken to any of them about it. It's a tough time. I do remember when I was there, there were whispers of the same thing happening.
"It just seems a little bit more serious at this point. I feel incredibly sad for all those individuals who have families and everything at home and it's going to create a lot of pressure for those guys."
Beirne added: "When you're in these camps, you can use it and also you try to put it in the back of your mind at the same time because you have an opportunity to put on the jersey and represent your country.
"I think that's what those guys will be doing. They'll just be focusing on the rugby and trying to put their best performances out there and focus on the other stuff later."