Head coach Andy Farrell says Ireland aspire to move up the โpecking orderโ after admitting England and France are favourites for the Guinness Six Nations.
The Irish were forced to settle for third place in the 2020 competition having lost to Eddie Jonesโ eventual winners at Twickenham in February and been beaten by Les Bleus in Paris at the end of October.
Farrell, who has now had a full year in the hot seat, insists his side are not far behind the expected Championship frontrunners but acknowledges that improvements are required.
โMy job as a head coach is to make the team as good as they possibly can be, to play to our potential,โ said Farrell.
โThereโs a pecking order at this moment in time where two teams are going in as favourites and we aspire to be that. I suppose that comes from hard work and performing under pressure.
โWe want to be back up there in that type of light come the end of this tournament.โ
Farrell hopes to have Ireland in contention for glory when reigning champions England visit Dublin on the final weekend.
Asked about the current gap between his side and their two main title rivals, the Englishman replied: โWeโre not far (behind) at all.
โWe made a couple of comments at the end of the autumn that we know where weโre going and we know how far we are from being there.
โWe thought we made good strides and weโre nearly at where we want to be.
โBut this is it now. The Six Nations is a fantastic competition and itโs there to be won by a number of teams but to do that there are a few things we need to keep getting better at.
โThe question has been dealing with the big games; youโve got to get through the first game, the second game to assess where youโre at before you start talking about the last game, which is where we want to be to try and compete to win a competition.โ
Ireland begin the tournament away to Wales on Sunday, February 7.
Captain Johnny Sexton hopes to be fit to lead his country in Cardiff after insisting his latest injury is โnot majorโ.
Fly-half Sexton, who suffered hamstring problems at the back end of last year, limped off during Leinsterโs PRO14 win over Munster on Saturday.
โAny time you get a little niggle like that itโs very frustrating because I trained hard to make sure that didnโt happen and it did at the time I didnโt want it to happen, which is somewhat typical,โ said the 35-year-old.
โItโs not major and hopefully I will be back training by the end of the week and hopefully be fit for the Wales game.
โI was in a good place before the Munster game, so I wonโt let it get me down too much and just get back on the horse and hopefully I will be firing next week.โ
Ulster back Jacob Stockdale was the notable absentee from the 36-man squad announced on Monday.
Farrell expects Stockdale to miss the opening two games of the tournament with a knee issue but feels he may be ready to return for the trip to Italy in round three.
โHe is progressing well. Itโs nothing too serious. But he has a bit of bone bruising, I understand, on his kneecap and bone bruising tends to take a bit of time to settle down,โ said Farrell.
โHe probably wonโt be available for the first two games and fingers crossed heโs back up and running midway through the competition.โ
Meanwhile, experienced Leinster prop Tadhg Furlong was perhaps a surprise selection, having not played for almost a year due to back, calf and hamstring problems.
Farrell revealed Furlong was feeling โfitโ and โstrongโ and hopes the player can continue his rehabilitation by playing for Leinster against Scarlets on Saturday.
โThereโs a natural progression that needs to happen for Tadhg to be physically and mentally right and to earn the right to be available for Wales,โ said the coach.
โSpeaking to Tadhg yesterday, he was feeling good, feeling fit, strong, meeting all the requirements.
โHe feels in good spirits so hopefully we get him through to the end of the week, get him some minutes under his belt for Leinster, if selected, and then the plan would be that he comes back into camp on Sunday with us and we can assess where heโs at.โ
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