Emmet Moloney writes for the 'The Irish Farmers Journal' and is a former sports columnist with 'The Kerryman'.

I must have missed something last weekend. Ireland won an away match against a team that beat us at home last year, yet listening to and reading post-match accounts, you’d think we lost! Emmet Moloney has a rant...

Right. Time for some home truths. We’ve now out-scored every team we’ve faced on the try front in this Six Nations. That shows the strength of our defence and our ability to find the try line. We’ve won two tight games away from home. That’s a sign of a team that is getting used to winning. The one game we lost was to a serious team in France and we were most unlucky not to win that one.

We’ve done all this without our first-choice hooker (Jerry Flannery), our full-back (Rob Kearney) and blind-side flanker (Stephen Ferris). Tommy Bowe, Jamie Heaslip and Paul O’Connell are not yet fully match fit, yet we can still win a Triple Crown. On top of that, Sean O’Brien is beginning to show his class and potential, our scrum is getting better, Luke Fitzgerald is back to his best and Ronan O’Gara is answering the challenge posed by Jonny Sexton. It’s not that bad, lads.

Admittedly, it hasn’t all been perfect. Referees are picking on us, our centre partnership isn’t setting the world alight and our lineout isn’t as effective as it should be. But what do we expect? Perfection?

You’d think so if you read some of the Monday papers or listened to George Hook and Tom McGurk – two guys who have lost the hosting and pundit plot.

We’re a small country with a relatively small pool of players. We went 15 years without beating Scotland not so long ago. They were smarting from a bad home loss to Wales and they caught us on the hop in our last game in Croke Park. We went over there and we beat them. So what if we were hanging on. The point is, we held on.

In two weeks’ time we go to Wales for more of the same. We’re piling up the positives here but our own aren’t paying attention. The squad is getting stronger as this championship progresses. We have more options to come in terms of returning players from injury and we are building momentum.

Winning a championship outright is unlikely because we’re not a team right now that beats the rest of them out the gate. And remember, our only home games are against England and France. The day for piling up the points is at home against Italy, Scotland or Wales, countries that can on occasion throw in the towel away from home when faced with rampant sides in their faces. But playing in front of their own fans? Well, like us, they have pride and don’t tend to roll over. You have to earn it against them – as it should be.

Any day you leave Murrayfield with a win is a good day, regardless of the scoreline. We always used to think that way, but it appears one Grand Slam has spoilt us.

Wales in the Millennium Stadium are next and as usual there are old scores to settle with Warren Gatland. We have two weeks to refresh ourselves and have more than enough to get past them. We’re scoring tries now and Wales respond well to that kind of team visiting them. They tend to take teams like that on, try for try, running the ball constantly. That will suit us. We held Italy and France to one try and Scotland tryless. Our defence is proven. We can stop them.

By the way, Sunday’s man of the match Ronan O’Gara played a game with Munster on the weekend before the Scottish match. How many GAA managers would let a player line out with his club a week or so before a championship match? Not enough, seems to be the answer. O’Gara obviously benefited from the outing and so did Munster and Ireland. I wish a few more managers were prepared to think like this.

Referees seem to be our biggest problem in rugby at the moment. We’re playing the victim role quite well here. As usual, Declan Kidney isn’t coming right out and saying it, but he’s letting the media do his work for him. We are more sinned against at the moment, but these things have a way of evening themselves out. Towards the end of the Welsh match don’t be surprised if a vital call goes our way; it’s the nature of these things.

So, too, is the begrudgery that follows the success of this team. There’s enough misery around the place without these pundits adding to it – in the aftermath of a victory, for God’s sake! Lads, we’re not New Zealand. We like to enjoy our wins, no matter how we come by them. We have men wearing our green jersey, giving their all and putting their bodies on the line. Let’s support that. Let’s celebrate that.

I say well done. Three tries to nil and we’re developing the killer instinct close to their try line. Three tries to nil and we made tackles like dervishes to keep it that way. Three tries to nil and the dream is still alive. To keep the dream alive, we must beat Wales.
What dream is that, you ask?

Whisper it, but this championship is set up for Ireland to deprive England of a Grand Slam and possibly clinch a Triple Crown on the same day. Martin Johnson (he of the ‘insult our President will ya, and expect to get away with it, will ya’ fame) will be bringing his troops to the Aviva for their coronation as Grand Slam winners. We’ve been here before. We can do this.

We can undo the one stain that is still attached to Lansdowne Road, the day that Johnson behaved so appallingly when he made our President walk onto the actual pitch in her good shoes! We still have some of the key pieces in place. The big bad wolf Johnson, Brian O’Driscoll, an underdog Irish side, the red carpet and President Mary McAleese on her last visit to the Aviva in her current role. She may even still have those shoes. A day to set the record straight.

Revenge for Skibbereen!

To catch Emmet's latest column, get 'The Irish Farmers' Journal' every Thursday...