By Ireland boss Andy Farrell wants his team to be courageous when they take on France in the Six Nations opener tonight.
France are the pre-tournament favourites despite their Rugby World Cup disappointment last year.
“We all realise it’s a huge game. It’s mouth-watering, isn’t it?” said Farrell. “It will be a great game to watch, there’s no doubt about that and the stadium, the atmosphere, it being the first game of the Six Nations after a World Cup, if you can’t get excited about that, you’re in the wrong place.
“For us, it’s just living up to our own expectations, we expect to perform on the big stage and it doesn’t really get any bigger than this one.
“The exciting thing for me is are we brave enough, have we got enough courage to go and do what we said we’re going to do and obviously we’re playing against a world-class side.
“But if you want to be successful, if you want to try to be the best, then you’ve got to beat the best in places like this and the occasion doesn’t get much bigger.
“We’ve got to relish those types of occasions and go after them.”
